Joshua Trees

The Mojave desert, this place is hot and full of trees. Actually not trees to be honest, but world's largest Yucca plant, the Joshua Tree, and it grows only here, in the Mojave Desert.

We were fascinated about these eh? "trees" and had to snap a couple of favourites of these Dr Seuss characters.

They grow 2- 3 inches ( aprox 6-7 cm ) a year, takes 50 to 60 years to mature and they live for around 150 years.

Mormon pioneers are said to have named this species "Joshua" tree because it mimicked the Old Testament prophet Joshua waving them, with upraised arms, on toward the promised land. 

Joshua tree, Yucca brevifolia, grow in the Mojave Desert of southwest California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona, at elevations from 2,000 to 6,000 feet.

The Joshua tree likes dry soils on plains, slopes and mesas, often growing in groves.

The Joshua tree has bell-shaped blooms, 1.25 to 1.5 inches large, each with 6 creamy, yellow-green sepals, crowded into 12 to 18 inch, many-branched clusters with an unpleasant odor. The trees bloom mostly in the spring, although not all of them will flower annually. The fruit is elliptical and green-brown. Six-celled, 2.5 to 4 inches, and somewhat fleshy, it dries and falls soon after maturity in late spring revealing many flat seeds.