Yucca whipplei ~ Our Lord's Candle (syn. Hesperoyucca whipplei)

Yucca whipplei has 1.5 " creamy white flowers on a stalk that looks too large to belong to the spike tipped grass-like foliage. When looking up into the sagebrush covered hillside Yucca stalks stand out like no other in the late spring. They bloom for about a month in May and early June. The flowers are very fragrant at night and are moth pollenated. Once individual Yucca whipplei plants bloom that plant dies. Sometimes Yucca whipplei produces offsets, often there are seedlings. Yucca whipplei will live for several years before blooming. A dry slope is preferred by Yucca whipplei. It seems from the pain received from a poke that there must be more on the spikes at the tips of the leaves than just a sharp point. Most of the Yucca plant is edible from the pith of the new stalk to the flowers and seeds. And even the sharp points were used along with their connected fibers.