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Yuccas have a very specialized, mutualistic pollination system; being pollinated by yucca moths (family Prodoxidae); the insect transfers the pollen from the stamens of one plant to the stigma of another, and at the same time lays an egg in the flower; the moth larva then feeds on some of the developing seeds, always leaving enough seed to ...
Another study takes a look at coevolution as a primary driver of change and diversification in the yucca moth and the Joshua tree, more commonly known as the yucca palm. The researchers tested this hypothesis by setting up a differential selection of two species of yucca moths and two corresponding species of yucca palms which they pollinate.
Yucca filamentosa, [1] Adam's needle and thread, [2] is a species of flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae [3] native to the southeastern United States. Growing to 3 metres (10 feet) tall, it is an evergreen shrub valued in horticulture.
Yucca baccata is recognized by having leaves 50–76 cm (20–30 in) long [4] with a blue-green color, and short or nonexistent trunks. It flowers in the spring, starting in April to July depending on locality (altitude), and the flowers range from 5 to 13 cm (2 to 5 in) long, in six segments, [7] white to cream-coloured with purple shades.
The yucca moth is the only insect capable of pollinating the yucca plant. Likewise, the yucca plant is the only biological resource that sustains the moth. Both are so deeply interdependent on each other for survival that in most cases one local population extinction event of either the plant or moth would lead to an extinction of the ...
The yucca -yucca moth mutualism is similar; the oviposition of yucca moth eggs allows yucca pollination. The yucca plant is capable of enforcing sanctions on the moths by withholding nectar to prevent cheating. [5] In both these situations, the yucca plant and fig tree are hosts to the insects and they administer sanctions to the insects.
Yucca flaccida, commonly called Adam's needle [4] or weak-leaf yucca, [5] is a species of flowering plant in the asparagus family (Asparagaceae). It is native to south-central and southeastern North America, from the lower Great Plains eastward to the Atlantic seaboard in Virginia , south through Florida and the Gulf states. [ 6 ]
Yucca elata is a perennial plant, with common names that include soaptree, soaptree yucca, soapweed, and palmella. [3] [4] It is native to southwestern North America, in the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan Desert in the United States (western Texas, New Mexico, Arizona), southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, and northern Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Sonora, Nuevo León).