What is the pollinator of a yucca?
The female yucca moth is the sole pollinator of the yucca, and the yucca is the only caterpillar host plant of the yucca moth. In fact, the yucca and yucca moth share a symbiotic relationship that is so specialized, each yucca species is pollinated by only one type of yucca moth.
What is a yucca plant?
In El Salvador, the tender tips of stems are eaten, and known locally as cogollo de izote. The most common houseplant yucca is Yucca gigantea. Yuccas are widely grown as architectural plants providing a dramatic accent to landscape design. They tolerate a range of conditions, but are best grown in full sun in subtropical or mild temperate areas.
What attracts yucca moths to yucca plants?
At night, yucca flowers emit a fragrance that attracts yucca moths. They’re vital contributors to the plant’s survival as their only pollinator. In return, yuccas are the only host plant for the moths. Most yucca moths have white wings that help them blend in with the blossoms they pollinate and then lay their eggs in.
What is the difference between yucca and clistoyucca?
For yuca, the term in many Latin American dialects for a species of root vegetable, see Cassava. For other uses, see Yucca (disambiguation). Clistoyucca ( Engelm.) Trel. Samuela Trel. Sarcoyucca (Engelm.) Linding. Yucca is a genus of perennial shrubs and trees in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Agavoideae.
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What pollinates the yucca plant?
A female moth visits the flowers of a yucca plant and removes pollen from the plant's anthers. She uses special tentacles around her mouth to carry the clump of pollen to another flower on a different plant.
Is yucca pollinated by wind?
The morphology of the Yucca flowers is found in a way that it does not support self-pollination. The stamens and the pistil are curved in distance from each. The stamen produces gelatinous pollen grains that cannot be easily detached from the stamen, making it impossible to be pollinated by wind.
Do bees pollinate yucca?
Moth-Pollinated flowers The yucca plant (Yucca spp.), USDA zones 5 through 10, is an excellent example of a moth-friendly flower, as are gardenias (Gardenia spp.), USDA zones 8 through 10.
Is yucca self pollinated?
Yucca moths are the only documented pollinator of yuccas, and moth larvae feed solely on developing yucca seeds. The quality of pollination by a female moth affects larval survival because flowers receiving small amounts of pollen or self-pollen have a high abscission probability, and larvae die in abscised flowers.
How are yucca plants pollinated?
In the central United States, soapweed yucca (Yucca glauca) is pollinated by a moth known as Tegeticulla yuccasella. Each spring, adult moths emerge from underground cocoons and the males and females meet up with each other on yucca plants to mate.
Which plant is pollinated through wind?
Wind pollinated plants include grasses and their cultivated cousins, the cereal crops, many trees, the infamous allergenic ragweeds, and others. All release billions of pollen grains into the air so that a lucky few will hit their targets.
What is the relationship between yucca plant and moth?
Yucca seeds provide the only food for the yucca moth larvae, so they need the plant to survive. It is a balanced relationship – the moth pollinates the plant and in exchange the plant provides food for the moth.
What relationship exists between moth and yucca plant?
obligate mutualismAbstract. The relationship between yucca moths and yucca plants is an example of obligate mutualism. Many species of yucca plant can be pollinated by only one species of yucca moth, while those yucca moths use the yucca flowers as a safe space to lay their eggs.
Which flowers do not attract bees?
10 plants that repel bees and waspsCucumber. This popular vegetable not only makes a great addition to summer salads, but also keeps bees and wasps away. ... Basil. Basil is another great choice for your garden that doubles as a kitchen resource and a pest repellent. ... Geraniums. ... Wormwood. ... Marigolds. ... Pitcher Plants.
Is a yucca moth a Commensalism?
The interaction among yuccas and yucca moths is cited as a classic example of the importance of mutualism in specialization and diversification.
How are Joshua trees pollinated?
Joshua trees are pollinated only by the yucca moth while the female lays eggs inside the flowers. When the larvae (caterpillars) emerge, they feed exclusively on Joshua tree seeds; a remarkable example of co-evolution.
Distribution
The natural distribution range of the genus Yucca (49 species and 24 subspecies) covers a vast area of the Americas. The genus is represented throughout Mexico and extends into Guatemala ( Yucca guatemalensis ).
Ecology
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 perpetuate the species.
Adaptations
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Uses
Yuccas are widely grown as ornamental plants in gardens. Many species also bear edible parts, including fruits, seeds, flowers, flowering stems, and more rarely roots. References to yucca root as food often arise from confusion with the similarly pronounced, but botanically unrelated, yuca, also called cassava or manioc ( Manihot esculenta ).
Cultivation
Yuccas are widely grown as architectural plants providing a dramatic accent to landscape design. They tolerate a range of conditions, but are best grown in full sun in subtropical or mild temperate areas. In gardening centres and horticultural catalogues they are usually grouped with other architectural plants such as cordylines and phormiums.
Symbolism
The yucca flower is the state flower of New Mexico in the southwest United States. No species name is given in the citation; however, the New Mexico Centennial Blue Book from 2012 references the soaptree yucca ( Yucca elata) as one of the more widespread species in New Mexico.
Species
As of February 2012 [update] , the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families recognizes 49 species of Yucca and a number of hybrids:
Classification and Range
Yucca moths are members of the family Prodoxidae and the genus Tegeticula. Of the 80 or so species found worldwide, about 30 are native to North America. These moths are typically found wherever yucca plants grow, generally throughout the hot, desert regions of the southwestern United States and Central and South America.
Yucca Moth Description
Yucca moths are typically silvery-white and small — usually less than an inch long. Some have dark markings and hair-like fringes on their wings. Their lifespan is about a year, but most of it is spent in the pupal stage.
Yucca Moth and Yucca Plant Pollination
The yucca plant cannot pollinate itself — Texas A&M University notes that it relies on the yucca plant and yucca moth relationship for cross-pollination. After the male and female yucca moths mate in springtime, the female gathers the sticky pollen from the anthers of a yucca flower.
Life Cycle of the Yucca Moth
After the yucca moth lays her eggs, she marks the flower with a pheromone, letting other moths know the flower is “taken.” According to the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service, after about a week, the small, pinkish-red caterpillars hatch inside the ovary and begin eating the immature seeds.
Common Name (s)
This evergreen shrub that is native to portions of the southeastern US produces rosettes of spear-shaped leaves from stems that are typically emerging from under the soil surface. Grows best in poor, dry, sandy loam or rocky soil, but will adapt to other soils. Its natural habitat includes prairies, light woodlands and at the edges of forests.
Previously known as
This evergreen shrub that is native to portions of the southeastern US produces rosettes of spear-shaped leaves from stems that are typically emerging from under the soil surface. Grows best in poor, dry, sandy loam or rocky soil, but will adapt to other soils. Its natural habitat includes prairies, light woodlands and at the edges of forests.