A 2011 study by Ken Cole, an ecologist with the U. S. Geological Survey, estimates that Joshua Trees will be eliminated from 90 percent of their range within 60 to 90 years. While inching over the Golden State’s borders into neighbouring Arizona, Utah and Nevada they principally exist – for the moment, anyway – between elevations of 400 and 1800 metres in the Joshua Tree National Park of the Mojave Desert.
Mormon settlers travelling in that area in the mid-19th-century thought that the tree’s unique shape was a reminder of Joshua raising his hands in prayer for the guidance of his people to the Promised Land. Less religiously impressed ranchers used the trees for fencing while miners fed it as fuel for their ore-processing steam engines. The fibre can reportedly even be used to make newsprint. Native American tribes used the leaves to weave baskets and sandals while relishing the seeds and flower buds.
Also known as the Yucca Palm, Tree Yucca or Palm Tree Yucca, botanically
Yucca brevifolia is no true tree but a member of the lily family. Averaging nine to 15 metres in height, they are slow growing and will not commence blooming until they are some 60 years old and two or three metres in height, at which time they also start to form branches. Blooming depends on a winter freeze followed by spring rains – neither now assured thanks to climate change. Pollination is dependent upon the minute yucca moth,
Pronuba yuccasella.
Thanks to a wide root spread of up to 20 metres, Yucca Trees tend to grow well apart and are thought to live for 150 to 200 years. The seeds have been found in the fossilized dung of the giant Shasta ground sloth, which apparently fed on the foliage and fruit, thus distributing the seeds.
If Joshua Trees are California’s desert symbol how come they are featured in a film centred on Texas? Ah well, that’s Hollywood for you. Oh yes and if views
Yucca brevifolia become burdensome on the eyes, the other two principals in
4 for Texas are Ursula Andress and Anita Ekberg . . .
