CONSPICUOUS VEGETATION OF REGION 33 



region except on cliffs and ledges inaccessible to rumi- 

 nants. In less arid regions where there is always an 

 abundance of grass this shrub is little eaten; but in 

 the open arid region, well stocked with cattle, sheep, 

 or goats, it soon disappears. 



The yucca family is well represented in the cave 

 region by three species of yuccas, or Spanish bayonets, 

 and by sotol and bear grass. Most conspicuous and 

 largest of the Spanish bayonets is Yucca macrocarpa, 

 often twenty or twenty-five feet high, and with a trunk 

 a foot in diameter inside of its rough clothing of de- 

 curved, rigid and sharp-pointed dead leaves. The 

 green leaves stand erect or slightly spreading near the 

 top, guarding with a circle of bayonets the great spike 

 of lilies that crown the stem and later the banana-like 

 fruit cluster of fleshy, edible pods or capsules inclosing 

 the myriads of flattened black seeds. The plants are 

 so heavily armed that only while young are their 

 flowers and fruit in danger from goats, cattle, and 

 horses. When above the reach of such enemies, they 

 survive for many years, beautifying the desert, scat- 

 tering their seeds, and offering armed protection to 

 nesting ravens, orioles, and crimson finches. Even the 

 woodpeckers burrow into their trunks and white-footed 

 mice and timid lizards hide among their dead leaves. 

 The slender-leaved Yucca radiosa (Fig. 7) out on the 

 flats also grows almost to tree size, the tall flower stems 

 often reaching six or eight feet above the ten or twelve- 

 foot summit of the leafy trunk, and bearing great 

 spikes of waxy white lilies and later dry capsules full of 

 innumerable flat, black seeds. While slender and not 



