Tag Archives: yucca

high noon

Another saguaro shot from my hike on Thursday. I nicknamed him “the gunslinger” 🙂

saguaro gunslinger

I positioned myself so the sun was behind one of the arms and then took 3 exposures. I combined them using Photomatix and then converted to black and white.

The next image was taken earlier in the day but again the sun was behind the subjects resulting in a glow coming from the yucca and grasses. In this case, I had to hold my hand above the lens to keep the sun from shining directly into it. I took 3 exposures in order to cover the extreme light differences and used Photomatix to combine them.

yucca and grasses

free education


The McDowell Sonoran Conservany (MSC) conducts public hikes every Saturday and Sunday. Typically, one hike is educational (thus shorter) and the other is more exercise oriented. Today’s was educational covering the history of Brown’s Ranch. Hike leader, Len Marcisz, spoke of some very colorful characters! Along on the hike was MSC Steward Alice Dimetra (above). She gave a lesson on two yuccas and how every bit of it was put to use by the native peoples of the past.

banana yucca fruit


Finally a photo of this fruit for my archives! I’ve been trying to get one for a couple of years so I was very excited to see this yesterday. I had heard there is only one moth that pollinates the yucca but I didn’t know about the incredible set of circumstances it takes for the pollination to take place. It’s no wonder we rarely see the fruit. If this kind of thing interests you, click on the following two links which will tell you all about the Pronuba Moth.

The Yucca and the Moth

The Case of the Yucca and the Pronuba Moth