Yucca blossoms
Images copyright by Mark A. Chappell
Several species of yuccas grow throughout much of western North America. When they blossom, they put up a large stalk with hundreds of flowers. The ones below were growing in front of a hilside covered with California poppies and baby blue-eyes near Lake Elsinor, California in the very wet spring of 2001; the close-ups were taken of plants blooming near Palm Desert, California (left and right, above), and near Zion National Park in Utah in late November (center).
