Back on October 9, I shared a photograph of one of the yuccas in my yard that had thrust forth a flower stalk. Pretty weird stuff, that. Our native soapweed yuccas are programmed to bloom in June and into July, not October.
Even on this late date, two flowers on the stalk
have actually started to unfurl and open. Interestingly, this particular plant
produced a successful flower spike in a timely fashion in June.
This eleventh-hour effort is not optimal.
Obviously, the weather will soon slap the plant silly. Additionally, failure is
further assured by the nature of the yucca’s pollinators. The plants rely
primarily on a specialized pollinator aptly named the yucca moth. The problem
here is that the moths have entirely abided by their appointed schedule and
exited stage left months ago.
If this story were to hit the personals, it would
be filed under this banner: Late Blooming Flowers Seeking Pollinators.
—Mitchell Hegman
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