Yucca flower pics and info. Cooking with yucca flowers. The blooms of the yucca plant appear on tall panicles between spring and early summer. The blossoms are usually white or cream colored tinged with purple or green.
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Look for the stalks to emerge from the centers of the rosettes formed by the leaves. The bloom spike of a plant growing outdoors may reach a height of two feet. Indoor plants seldom bloom.
Depending on variety, the flowers will be shaped like bells or saucers. They form in clusters along the spikes with the blooms on the bottom opening before those on top. Each flower may be up to four inches across.
Yucca is the state flower (technically just the flowers of Yucca glauca) of New Mexico. Early Spanish speaking settlers called them “Lamparas de dios” which means lamps of the Lord because the flower clusters seem to glow in the moonlight.
Native Americans used yucca flowers for food. They were an important wild food because of their high potassium and calcium content.
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The flowers of the yucca plant are most tender at the bud stage when the flower stalks both resemble and taste similar to asparagus. The six petals of each yucca bloom are fleshy and can be boiled in salted water like cabbage or added to egg dishes such as omelets or quiche.
To prepare them: pick the newly opened blooms, remove the stamens, and rinse the petals under running water.
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To obtain the petals, you can either grow your own yucca plants or you may be able to find them at your local Hispanic market.
The Blooms of Various Yucca Species
Spanish Daggers,…
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Spanish Bayonet,…
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Soapweed Yucca….
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Giant Dagger…
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Yucca gloriosa
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