Mar 02 2009
The Many Uses of Spanish Dagger
Take a look at the landscape below. What can you tell me about the environment depicted?
It’s a desert, or at least a dry habitat, right? The plain in the foreground, anyhow–who knows what the climate is like in the mountains? But the tall, spiky yucca plants at front right tell you, just as surely as would a saguaro or a Joshua tree (itself a Yucca) that this is a dry place. Palm trees, especially coconut palms, serve the same function for moist tropical locales. So use #1 for Spanish Dagger, Yucca treculeana, is for framing establishing shots of deserts and near-deserts.
OK, on to use #2: imposing raptor perch.
Especially when they are in bloom, Spanish daggers provide irresistible lookouts for raptors like this White-tailed Hawk. Not only do they offer desirable panoramas over the surrounding country, they’re just cool-looking, the hard green spikes set off by soft cream flowers. They make a statement about the bird atop them. Even a mockingbird seems a little more fierce and regal perched on a yucca.
Which brings us to use #3: wild cash crop.
In mid-February, you’ll see scenes like this all over Northeast Mexico. People harvest Spanish Dagger blooms to sell to those who want to enjoy this traditional wild food, but don’t want to risk the spines and the climbing themselves. The flowers are added raw to salads, or cooked or pickled. They are said to vary in palatability, with some plants producing bitter blooms, others mild. I don’t know if the vendors at this stand warranted their produce against bitterness or not.
Eating yucca flowers is still popular enough that Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge had a sign posted in their visitor center warning that cutting the blooms is illegal and encouraging anyone witnessing such activity to report it to the staff. Those Aplomado Falcons need places to sit, you know!
If you’d like to know a little more about this plant, its uses, and the ecology of some of the critters that depend on it, check out this post by Ro Wauer on The Nature Writers of Texas blog.
When I lived on Jekyll Island, GA we would go harvest the yucca flowers around the island and eat them on salads or just for a fun snack. I like the name Spanish Dagger…a new one for me, we always called them Spanish Bayonet or more commonly just yucca.
Hi Jeffrey, found your blog amongst other bird blogs. Gorgeous photos. I’m going into your archives to find some Delaware birds–I’m in Colorado but grew up in Philly/NJ and my family is in Delaware. Might be moving back there soon so I need to see where the good hotspots are.
Best,
Kate
penguinart.com