Yucca is blooming in Uzhgorod and Irshava (PHOTOS)

If you see this plant (pictured), you should know that it is yucca – a genus of evergreen plants, which includes about 50 species. One of them – Yucca flaccida – grows in Uzhgorod. I have seen it in Z. Bakoniy Lane, near the Holy Cross Greek Catholic Cathedral on A.Bachynskyi Square, in UzhNU Botanical Garden on Olbracht Street.

It is an evergreen, woody plant with short, sometimes even missing stem and big, sword-shaped leaves. The flowers look like white bells up to 7 cm long. The fruit looks like a large (10 cm), dry or fleshy capsule with rounded black seeds.

The area of the genus stretches from Atlantic coast of Florida and the Caribbean, through the southern states of USA and Mexico to California. Yucca prefers dry open space with sandy, rocky or calcareous soils.

Yucca is mostly an ornamental plant. It is often grown in gardens, parks and greenhouses around the world. Some yucca species have become known to science thanks to collections of botanical gardens. Yucca has been cultivated on the Black Sea coast of the Caucasus and Crimea since​ 1816.       

As you can see, some specimens have taken root in our city. In Irshava, for example, two yucca stems have blossomed in the city center on the landscape flowerbed.