Hula Yucca -- Soaptree Yucca in White Sands National Monument, New Mexico
by Darin Volpe
Title
Hula Yucca -- Soaptree Yucca in White Sands National Monument, New Mexico
Artist
Darin Volpe
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
The Soaptree Yucca is native to southwestern North America. It utilizes stem elongation to stay above the ever-changing sand level of the dunes and produces large cream-colored blooms in late spring. The yucca was used extensively by Native Americans - the flower pods boiled or roasted and eaten, the leaf fibers used to make rope, sandals, baskets, and cloth, and the roots used to make soap for washing and even to treat dandruff and hair loss.
White Sands National Monument is located in southeastern New Mexico. The gypsum dunes of White Sands National Monument rise from an ancient lake bed in the Tularosa Basin. The sands form an ecological island where desert plants and animals have adapted, some at an astonishing rate, to the bright and wind-blown world. The blinding white sand dunes are composed of gypsum crystals, and is the largest gypsum dune field in the world. Gypsum is rarely found as sand because rain normally dissolves it and carries it to the sea. However, White Sands sits in the Tularosa Basin and the the water and dissolved gypsum cannot escape. When the water evaporates or gets absorbed into the ground it leaves the gypsum behind as sand. The monument, created in 1933 by President Herbert Hoover, is completely surrounded by the White Sands Missile Range and closes about twice a week due to missile tests in the area.
Uploaded
October 9th, 2016
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