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Yucca brevifolia 'Wikieup Form' (Arizona Joshua Tree) - This odd slow growing plant has a tree-like well-branched habit to 45 feet but plants in cultivation are usually single trunked and much smaller. The typical form of the species has a dense cluster at the end of the stems of green, linear narrow leaves that are 6 to 14 inches long by about ½ inch wide at the base and taper to a sharp point at the tip. This particular form has bluish-green leaves. Old leaves lie down on the stems and trunks with very old wood showing a darker bark-like wood. The large creamy-white flowers are produced in terminal clusters in mid to late spring and are followed by large pale green fruit. Branching occurs after flowering or from insect damage and at these points form a very hard wood that occurs because of the plant's uptake of silica. This wood is hard enough to be turned in a lathe to make beautiful bowls or art pieces.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil. Irrigated infrequently. Hardy to at least 0 F.
This plant is endemic to the Mojave Desert from eastern California through Arizona, Nevada and Utah at elevations of 2,000 to 6,000 feet. In its youth Yucca brevifolia it known to grow up to 3 inches per year but slows to half of this after 10 years and can live for several hundred years and older specimens are speculated to be as old as 1,000 years, but as a monocot it lacks the growth rings to be able to confirm this.
The name Yucca was given to the genus by Linnaeus, perhaps by mistake, as it is the Latinized derivation of "yuca", the Caribbean name for Cassava (Manihot esculenta) an unrelated plant in the Euphorbia family that is native to the Caribbean area. Interestingly it was also Linnaeus who applied the name Manihot to similarly spelled but unrelated plant called Yuca. The specific epithet is from the Latin words 'brevis' meaning short and 'folia' meaning leaf for the with this plant's short leaves. The name Joshua tree was given to this tree by Mormon settlers. Other common names include Yucca palm, Tree yucca and Palm Tree Yucca.
This form of Joshua Tree that has bluish leaves comes from a location in Arizona that gets a good percentage of its annual rainfall in the summer months. This has led to some speculation that this will make this plant better suited to cultivation, but we really do not know this yet. We had a very limited number of these plants which are from seed collected by Brian Kemble at a location 44 miles SE of Wikieup, Arizona and sold this plant in 2010 and 2011.
The information about Yucca brevifolia 'Wikieup Form' displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant. |
