Parry's beargrass (Nolina parryi)
Images copyright by Mark A. Chappell
I believe these plants are Parry's beargrass, a California endemic, found in desert and pinon-pine regions in the southeastern part of the state. These yucca-like plants -- along with many other plants -- were blooming vigorously in the Hidden Valley area of Joshua Tree National Park after the record winter rains of 2004-2005 and 2006. This species has small cream-colored blossoms that can attain an almost paper-like quality, very different from the heavy, waxy flowers typical of the somewhat similar yuccas (such as these). To get these images I used very different focal lengths. The upper pictures were taken with an extreme wideangle zoom (in the right image, I placed the sun placed the nearer stalk to keep flare out of the image). The picture of the blossoms at bottom right was taken with a long telephoto lens, and the backlit stalks were shot with a short telephoto zoom.
