Thursday, August 13, 2020

Yuccas don't set seed here in the PNW, or do they???

As usual my Yucca filamentosa bloomed for several glorious weeks in June and July. They're so fabulous I cannot imagine the garden without them.

Several blog readers/Instagram followers asked if I'd ever cooked with the blossoms, a couple even sent recipes. I thought about it, but never actually got around to it. Maybe next year?

One day when I was cleaning up and cutting back near the fading yuccas my eye caught something odd. Something that it took awhile for my brain to process and say "no, that's not normal... go back and look again" and so I did...

Huh. Those are not just blooms fallen to the ground, but rather blooms that started to form a seed pod. That's something I've never, ever, seen before.

I started inspecting the bloom stalks and what do you know, I found this...

And I looked up on that same stalk and there were more small pods/fruit forming, only on that stalk though, the others were all bare.

Some of you might remember when I wrote about the yucca moth (here) and fact that we don't have "the moth" here in the PNW so our yuccas go unpollinated. Yucca moths are very specialized and there is a limited number that pollinate any given yucca species.

Unfortunately just a few days later and my hopes for additional fruit were dashed. It's hard to tell in this photo, but all the other potential fruit were gone, aborted. I listed again to the podcast I referenced in that December blog post (podcast here). The yucca expert, Dr. Kari Segraves, talked about the plant being able to abort fruit formation if there are too many yucca moth larvae in the fruit (the larvae feed on the seeds). Is that what happened here? I doubt it ... remember I was told by Dr. Segraves that we don't have the yucca moth here in the PNW. But then again something definitely was at work here—and also how odd that everything I've observed only happened on one bloom stalk when there were a dozen blooming.

The one remaining fruit is getting bigger.

I usually cut down all the spent stalks but I left the one with the fruit and a few others around it. I figured leaving just one would make it seem like an oddity and amp up the chances of vandalism.

I'm watching my one seed pod very closely and will report on what happens next. Any chance there's larvae in there eating the seeds? Did something else happen to pollinate? Inquiring minds want to know! (I doubt they'll get answers...but they want to know!)

Weather Diary, Aug 12: Hi 74, Low 57/ Precip 0

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11 comments:

  1. Yucca in full bloom is simply gorgeous, but as soon as they fade I chop the stocks off... darn. I'll be checking for seeds next year. A big mystery of the disappearing yucca fruit. Could they have dropped to the ground? Fingers crossed for viable seeds in the remaining pod!

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    1. Yes they definitely dropped to the ground. The mystery as I see it is why did they drop to the ground?

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    2. AnonymousJune 24, 2024

      If they're not receiving adequate pollination from yucca moths, they will drop. Same thing happens with squash. Maybe try hand pollination and see what happens?

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  2. Interesting. One of my 'Bright Star' Yuccas bloomed for the first time this year but I didn't notice anything of that kind; however, the Yucca elephantipes that formerly occupied a huge section of our back slope clearly had grown into a grove over time so it was propagating somehow and new plants - seedlings? - still appear now and then.

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    1. A lot of yucca propagate themselves via underground pups/runners. That's why this particular yucca (Y. filamentosa) is hated by many, because it can grow into a huge unruly clump. This fruit isn't particularly exciting to me for propagation purposes, just because in all my years of gardening I've never seen a yucca bloom pollinated in the PNW.

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  3. Hmmm, maybe another insect pollinated it or a moth has migrated north!
    I like repurposing the old Yucca flower stalks as stakes, they are almost as tough as bamboo.

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    1. I'm wondering if ants could have done the deed. Lord knows we have enough ants around here that they're in everything.

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  4. Such a stunning plant. Love Eliza's suggestion of using the stalks as plant stakes. I had no idea they were that sturdy.

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    1. Oh gosh yes! I used my bamboo poles but these would definitely work as garden stakes.

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  5. I have almost every year a few seedpods on my Yucca filamentosa and I live in Europe which is even farther away from any original yucca moth habitat. I'm not sure if the seeds are fertile, though. I tried to sow some without success.

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    1. Oh, very interesting! Thank you for sharing this.

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