Yucca periculosa is a fairly large yucca that grows in southern Mexico, ranging from the states of Puebla and Veracruz to Oaxaca. Reaching up to 25 or 30 feet tall (8 to 10 meters), the plant is fairly widespread and common, yet for some reason is not widely grown in xeric garden landscapes across the world. Here’s a closer look at this attractive species.
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I planted this Yucca periculosa (left) in my gardens about 5 years ago from a 5 gallon pot which I bought in 2012 at the Huntington Botanical Gardens Succulent Symposium in California. It’s established itself and has started forming a trunk, as well as a couple of small offsets. Other plants in this view are, from left to right, Ferocactus peninsulae (partly behind the yucca), red Ferocactus pringlei, blue Agave applanata to the right foreground, and Agave palmeri in the background middle. An organ pipe cactus and Queen Victoria agave and more ferocacti are visible in the far right background. The trees are California junipers (Juniperus californica).
In January 2014 I took a trip to southern Mexico to see some of the regional flora. After flying into Mexico City and renting a car, we took a route through Puebla and then into Veracruz, ending up in Oaxaca. The hillsides near the city of Tehuacan are covered with a semi-desert thornscrub that is very rich in numerous succulent taxa, from cactus to agaves and about 6 other plant families as well. This was the first place I encountered Yucca periculosa in the wild.
This hillside near Tehuacan, Puebla has several species of cactus and agaves, as well as this spurge species of some sort with pencil-thick stems. I am not sure of whether it is a Euphorbia (it resembles E. antisyphilitica which is common to the north) or a species of Pedilanthus. I think I’d go with the Euphorbia at this point.
The dry volcanic hills southeast of Puebla are crowded with large clumps of Yucca periculosa, which can form clonal colonies as underground stolons erupt off of the mother plant.
In Mexico, Yucca periculosa goes by the common name of “izote”, which is derived from the native Nahuatl language and has been applied to several members of the Yucca genus. Since yucca flowers are edible, the name of izote has also been applied to them in a culinary sense, and as of 2017 there is at least one Mexican restaurant named Izote in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. The things you learn on the internet….
Old leaves of izote plants do not shed off, and fold down alongside the trunk to form a skirt of dead leaves that helps insulate the stems from extremes of temperature and dryness.
The leaves are attractive, being bright green and lined with marginal filaments that curl and coil into appealing patterns.
One of the companion species to Yucca periculosa is the giant barrel cactus, Echinocactus platyacanthus. These massive cacti deserve their own post, which I will write someday. But for now, we can see a hint of the barrel along with their izote companions.
Yucca periculosa is not picky about soil type, and can also be found on the extensive limestone outcroppings of the region, not just on volcanic soils. Shown below are groves of izote alongside the columnar cactus Neobuxbaumia macrocephala. The genus Neobuxbaumia is probably the closest relative of the saguaro cactus (Carnegiea gigantea) and one can easily see the resemblance.
More gigantic Neobuxbaumia macrocephala specimens growing on a limestone ridge with the izotes and a flowering agave.
Succulent thornscrub growing near Tehuacan, featuring a columnar cactus (probably a Pilosocereus species), Agave salmiana, and an Opuntia prickly pear of some sort.
One other companion species of note is Beaucarnea recurvata, the so-called ponytail palm, which is neither a palm (it’s in the Nolinaceae) nor does it much resemble a ponytail once it gets past its youngest juvenile phases. Commonly grown worldwide as a houseplant, Beaucarnea recurvata deserves its own post as well. I’ll get to it, I promise. 🙂
Closer to the population centers of Puebla, the landscape becomes increasingly dominated by humanity and agriculture in at least the valleys. Obviously agricultural production is incompatible with natural plant cover, and almost everything has been cleared, although it is common for farmers and ranchers to leave some of the larger plants (including these Yucca periculosa) behind and to cultivate around them.
This final image below shows a mix of plowed fields, less-disturbed rangeland, and clumps of Yucca periculosa sprawling out beneath the towering volcanic cone of Pico de Orizaba. Orizaba reaches 18,491 feet tall (5,610 meters), is the highest mountain in Mexico, and the third tallest in North America. The last eruption of the volcano was in 1846, but it’s entirely possible for it to go off again sometime in the future, as its neighboring high volcano Popocatepetl does a few dozen miles to the west.
If you look closely, you can see the Large Millimeter Telescope sitting to the left atop Sierra Negra, at over 15,000 feet. The LMT is a joint project of the Mexican government (80%) and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (20%), and is dedicated to observing interstellar space in the optical range of 1 millimeter wavelengths. This is a frequency that enables instruments to see better through dust clouds than either longer or shorter wavelengths. As a result, this telescope is useful to help us better understand how both stars and planets are formed. And since ultimately everything from Orizaba and the telescope, to the yuccas and we humans, are crafted from former interstellar space dust, it offers an intriguing glimpse into the formation mechanisms of the universe.
Great, tree like Yucca. How hardy is it, Jan? Loved seeing the massive specimens near the end of the post, I can see this would make a beautiful specimen for large gardens like yours.
I am not sure of precisely how low it can go, but mine so far have not shown any damage at all to the high teens. I estimate that they might be okay to between 10 and 15 F? This is despite the nearly tropical origins, although they do tend to grow at high elevations (4000 to 8000 feet or more) which see light freezing on dry, clear winter nights once in awhile, so the genes for some frost tolerance are there, as evidenced by no damage to somewhat colder than than here in AZ. I love big plants, and since I have the space for them I want to gather as many hardy species as I can obtain. If I ever see more, I will buy them, as they are so seldom sold. I’ve only seen them once, in fact, at the Huntington Botanical Gardens during their annual cactus and succulent symposium sale. Got them both. Want more. 🙂
Thanks, Jan! I often figure a plant is probably a bit hardier than it’s native climate having had to deal with millions of years of fluctuations which would have snuffed it out long ago. I will put it on my wish list for Campo Montados
That’s a good axiom to remember when thinking of long-term evolutionary adaptations, indeed. Plants (and animals) need to survive worst-case scenarios that occur with some regularity in order to be a sustainable populations and to successfully reproduce. So if a given species is living in a place that normally sees 20 F almost every winter, it’s safe to assume that in extreme winters they might see 10 F every 5 or 10 years, and that they can survive that too, although at a certain point factors such as frequency and duration of the cold start to matter as well. If a plant is chronically exposed to 10 F when it’s adapted to 20 F, odds are good that it won’t like to live there, barring some other mitigating circumstance such as benevolent slope, soil, or protected exposure conditions that in a sense stop the 10 F from being as bad as it might be in the wide on or on different rock types, etc. Plus individuals also vary, and that’s why people who seek out plants for extra hardiness in the horticultural trade do well to look at the margins of natural range (higher elevations, more northerly latitudes, drier edges indicating drought tolerance, etc) for naturally-selected examples that may well show ultra-toughness when compared to the more normal range of the same species. In any case, I am pretty sure based upon 6 years of growth that Yucca periculosa would do well in the majority of California, including at Campo Montados.
In 1893 a company called the “Mexican Yucca Soap” was selling a ‘strictly pure’ type of soap that was derived from a mexican yucca, but I have been unable to determine if this was a true mexican species like ‘yucca pericoulosa’, or others in the area. It is good that the Mexican Yucca Soap company appears to not have been successful, as it would have put pressure on the wild population of plants, but the original “Mexican Yucca Soap Company” chemist – F.W. Arvine (NY) did major work later for Standard Oil + Thompson and Bedford Oil companies and with MIT to develop “piston Oils, Vasoline, and engine viscosity tests for oils.
I am also glad that this venture failed. Using yuccas as soap is an ecologically destructive thing, given how slow growing the plants are and also given how obviously easy other soaps are manufactured using different means. It’s one thing to use a bit in small amounts, but industrial-scale soap manufacturing would quickly ruin most viable yucca populations wherever they occur.