There aren’t a lot of straight lines in nature, so chaparral yucca really stands out in the landscape. Its leaves are straight and sharp and it looks like a firework. It looks great against California buckwheat, black sage, or rocks.
Chaparral yucca stays green all year long. It lives five to ten years and the entire time, it’s storing energy. Then, when it’s ready, it sends up a huge flower stalk that looks like a giant asparagus spear.
When white flowers blossom all over the stalk, chaparral yucca moths come to pollinate it, and to lay their eggs on it. Their caterpillars will grow on the chaparral yucca and eat its seeds. The chaparral yucca and the chaparral yucca moth depend on each other and help each other reproduce.
After blooming and making seeds, chaparral yucca dies. It fades slowly and you can see its tall, dried flower stalks and dried firework shapes in the landscape, alongside green young chaparral yuccas just starting out.
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Looking for help with planting chaparral yucca, with choosing Los Angeles native plants for your garden, or with maintaining your wildlife garden and keeping up with weeding, now that weed season has begun? Contact me or leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
