Exhibit Item 78
Lycium exertum
Arizona desert-thorn
Illustrator: © Wendy C. Hodgson
Pen and Ink
Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert, 2001
The fruit, a small red-orange berry, played an important role in the diets of southwestern people. They are eaten raw, preserved or dried.
Exhibit Item 79
Yucca baccata
Banana yucca, Blue yucca
Illustrator: © Wendy C. Hodgson
Pen and Ink
Food Plants of the Sonoran Desert, 2001
From the Collection of the
Arizona Museum of Natural History
Yuccas were a significant source of food and fiber for indigenous peoples of the Sonoran Desert. This yucca provided the most desirable fleshy fruit and edible stalks of all the yuccas. Ingesting a few fruits may cause a strong laxative effect. Banana yucca is pollinated by only one kind of female moth, Tegeticula baccatella who deposits her eggs in the flower’s ovary, then purposefully pushes pollen down the style. It is dioecious, having male and female flowers borne on different plants.
