Seldom have yucca palms been recognized so humorously in the innermost part of their plant soul: “Tempered, thin forests of them stalk desolately over the high tablelands”, their crowns bristle with “bayonet-like pointed dull green leaves that become shaggy with age”, and last but not least: “After dying, a slow process, leaves the ghostly hollow network of a wooden skeleton, unable to muster enough strength to rot and looking terrifying in the moonlight.” The writer Mary Hunter Austin (1868-1934), known in the US as a classic of nature writing, revered the American West between the Mojave Desert and Sierra Nevada, and while her judgment of yucca palms is rather unfavorable, it shows how masterful she is portrayed a landscape that was considered the opposite of lovely.
Mary Hunter Austin: “Land of Little Rain”: The Mysticism of the Gopher Culture
