Ever green at JBWR

Transitioning away from my posts on the trip to St. John, what could more appropriate than Yucca, Yucca filamentosa, or Adam’s Needle? It looks like it belongs down there in the tropics. In fact, it grows up here at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge. Baring a patch or two of grass and some pines, this plant is one of the few green things out there now, even during this ridiculously mild winter (as opposed to the veritable riot of early February springiness in Prospect Park).

Strange as it may seem, this yucca is actually native to the East Coast, at least from Virginia south. Up here, it appears to be an escapee from cultivation (some grows in a yard down the block), luxuriating in sandy fields and dunelands. It produces a rather amazing four-to-six-foot high stalked cluster of bell-shaped flowers that bloom at night and attract a small pollinating moth.