Yucca torreyi
When we visited Longhorn Cavern State Park in January I made a mental note to return in the spring to check out the wildflowers on the property. That checking-out came on March 17th. As we approached along Park Road 4 we couldn’t help noticing some attractive Yucca torreyi plants in full flower, though unfortunately there weren’t safe places to pull over near them. Arriving at Longhorn Caverns, safety wasn’t the problem: finding an empty space in the unexpectedly crowded parking lots was. (Tour groups now numbered in the dozens, whereas our January tour consisted of a whopping four visitors.) I don’t think you’ll have any trouble understanding why two of the vernacular names for this yucca species are Spanish bayonet and Spanish dagger; the “Spanish” presumably goes back to the time when Mexico, including Texas, was a colony of Spain.
© 2023 Steven Schwartzman
Portraits of Wildflowers 
Most times I can’t get the sky to cooperate with me. Nice shot, Steve.
oneowner
March 22, 2023 at 7:19 AM
Have you tried bribing the sky to cooperate?
Steve Schwartzman
March 22, 2023 at 7:46 AM
No.
oneowner
March 22, 2023 at 10:43 AM
Give it a shot. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Steve Schwartzman
March 22, 2023 at 10:59 AM
The yucca looks like it “goosed” the sky, causing the clouds to scatter. That’s a great capture!
Tina
March 22, 2023 at 8:35 AM
Can’t speak for the sky, but my left knee got jabbed a bit by a leaf point lower down. Good skies have favored me more than usual lately.
Steve Schwartzman
March 22, 2023 at 9:11 AM
I like to stroke prickly cacti, but these yucca-torreyi plants look a tad too intimidating.
Peter Klopp
March 22, 2023 at 9:44 AM
One good thing is that these yucca leaves are large, and in theory easy to see and avoid. Prickly pears, in contrast, in addition to noticeably spines have clusters of tiny spines called glochids that insidiously get into people’s skin and don’t easily come out.
Steve Schwartzman
March 22, 2023 at 10:58 AM
If you’re busy gardening it can be too easy to get caught out by sharp plants – a cordyline here managed to sneak a tip through the side of my glasses and nicked the white of my eye. Ow! But no serious damage. So do be wary!
Ann Mackay
March 26, 2023 at 5:16 AM
Yikes! That was a close call. Glad it came out okay.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2023 at 8:12 AM
Taught me to be more careful…
Ann Mackay
March 26, 2023 at 10:58 AM
A good lesson. Even so, there are things we can’t control.
Steve Schwartzman
March 26, 2023 at 2:55 PM
[…] torreyi with particularly fresh and photogenic flowers. I carefully reached in over the “bayonets” and made some […]
A closer look at Yucca torreyi | Portraits of Wildflowers
March 22, 2023 at 4:26 PM
Between the plant and the sky, that is a terrific photo, Steve.
Eliza Waters
March 22, 2023 at 7:44 PM
I moved around trying out different ways of juxtaposing the plant against the sky while at the same time not including unwanted things in the background.
Steve Schwartzman
March 22, 2023 at 8:48 PM
This was one of my first three exotic species of Yucca. It is a long story that involves a sinful purchase.
tonytomeo
March 22, 2023 at 8:03 PM
We’ll forgive you your sins, all for the sake of botany.
Steve Schwartzman
March 22, 2023 at 8:49 PM
BOTANY?! That is the other sin. I prefer to justify it as ‘horticulture’.
tonytomeo
March 22, 2023 at 9:13 PM
The clouds look like fluff catching on the plant’s spears; analogues to milkweed or old man’s beard. I love the buds of this plant; I was lucky enough to find some in Rockport this year, and hope to find more in the hill country in a few weeks — although it may be too late in mid-April.
shoreacres
March 22, 2023 at 9:38 PM
I’ve sometimes played around (photographically) with yucca buds. In this case the plant was well past that point, even as the clouds were not well past the points of the leaves.
If mid-April proves too late for yucca buds, plenty of other natural delights will still be there waiting for you then.
Steve Schwartzman
March 23, 2023 at 6:53 AM