Plantae > Tracheophyta > Liliopsida > Asparagales > Asparagaceae > Yucca > Yucca brevifoliaYucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree)Synonyms: Cleistoyucca arborescens; Cleistoyucca brevifolia; Clistoyucca arborescens; Clistoyucca brevifolia (homotypic); Sarcoyucca brevifolia (homotypic); Yucca arborescens; Yucca brevifolia f. herbertii; Yucca brevifolia herbertii; Yucca brevifolia jaegeriana; Yucca brevifolia var. brevifolia; Yucca brevifolia var. herbertii; Yucca brevifolia var. jaegeriana; Yucca draconis var. arborescens; Yucca jaegeriana Yucca brevifolia is a plant species belonging to the genus Yucca. It is tree-like in habit, which is reflected in its common names: Joshua tree, yucca palm, tree yucca, and palm tree yucca. This monocotyledonous tree is native to arid southwestern North America in the states of California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada, where it is confined mostly to the Mojave Desert between 400 and 1,800 m (1,300 and 5,900 ft) elevation. It thrives in the open grasslands of Queen Valley and Lost Horse Valley in Joshua Tree National Park. A dense Joshua tree forest also exists in Mojave National Preserve, in the Cima Dome, (Cima, California), northeast of Kingman, Arizona in Mohave County, Arizona, as well as along U.S. 93 between the towns of Wickenburg and Wikieup, and designated as the Joshua Tree Parkway |
| Allergen Potential [1] | Low |  | | Edible [2] | May be edible. See the Plants For A Future link below for details. | | Flower Type [2] | Hermaphrodite | | Hazards [2] | The roots contain saponins; Whilst saponins are quite toxic to people, they are poorly absorbed by the body and so tend to pass straight through. They are also destroyed by prolonged heat, such as slow baking in an oven. Saponins are found in many common foods such as beans; Saponins are much more toxic to some creatures, such as fish, and hunting tribes have traditionally put large quantities of them in streams, lakes etc in order to stupefy or kill the fish; | | Leaf Type [2] | Evergreen | | Lifespan [3] | Perennial | | Structure [2] | Tree | | Usage [2] | A fibre obtained from the leaves is used for making ropes, baskets, sandals, clothing and mats;
The whole leaf can be woven into mats etc and it can also be used as a paint brush;
The dark red core of the roots has been used as a pattern material in coiled baskets; The core is split into strands, soaked and worked in with the coiling so that the colour is always on the outside;
Red and black dyes have been obtained from the roots;
The roots are rich in saponins and can be used as a soap substitute; It makes a good hair wash;
Wood - light, soft, spongy, difficult to work; Sometimes cut into thin layers and used as wrapping material, or manufactured into boxes and other small articles; | | | Height [2] | 30 feet (9 m) |
View Plants For A Future Record : Yucca brevifolia |
Attributes / relations provided by ♦ 1Derived from Allergy-Free Gardening OPALS™, Thomas Leo Ogren (2000) ♦ 2Plants For A Future licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License♦ 3USDA Plants Database, U. S. Department of Agriculture ♦ 4Ben-Dov, Y., Miller, D.R. & Gibson, G.A.P. ScaleNet 4 November 2009 ♦ 5Jorrit H. Poelen, James D. Simons and Chris J. Mungall. (2014). Global Biotic Interactions: An open infrastructure to share and analyze species-interaction datasets. Ecological Informatics. ♦ 6Spermophilus mohavensis, Troy L. Best, MAMMALIAN SPECIES No. 509, pp. 1-7 (1995) |
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0
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