Stories for Children Magazine

Beauty in the Beast

By: Anne C. Bromley

You’re staring out the car window at a twisted, spiky tree straight out of a Dr. Seuss book and you ask your Grandpa, “What in the world is that?” He pulls over so you can take a picture of this prickly curiosity that is nothing like that elm tree in your backyard. 

Welcome to the Mojave Desert. The driest of the North American deserts, the Mojave is a huge rectangle that covers 50,000 square miles of southwestern California, southern Nevada, and tiny corners of northwestern Arizona and southwestern Utah. It’s the only place on this planet where you will find the Joshua tree.

This “ugly duckling” of the plant world known to botanists as Yucca brevifolia is actually a giant member of the lily family and is even related to more familiar flowering plants, including the orchid. While it may not be pretty, it patiently persists, thriving on very little water and the extreme temperatures of the high desert at altitudes of 2,000-6,000 feet. 

Years ago, the Native Americans saw how useful the Joshua tree could be. They made baskets and sandals from its tough leaves and ate its flower buds and seeds (either raw or roasted) as healthy between-meal snacks. 

Historical records show that the Joshua tree got its name from the Mormons in the 1850s as they traveled across the Mojave Desert on their way to the town of San Bernardino. Its many branches spread up in all directions reminded them of the biblical Joshua beckoning them to the Promised Land. Most important, however, the Joshua tree was a sign that they had reached the halfway mark of their journey from Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Along with the Mormon settlers, ranchers and miners arrived in the high desert with high hopes of raising cattle and digging for gold. These homesteaders used the Joshua tree’s limbs and trunks for fencing and corrals and the miners used them as fuel for the steam engines that processed ore.

Others, however, were either disgusted or horrified by what they saw. John C. Fremont, a well-known explorer, was searching for a railroad access to the Pacific Coast when he came across the strange tree. He wrote in his journal that it was “stiff and ungraceful . . . the most repulsive tree in the vegetable kingdom.”  Another California desert traveler, Joseph Smeaton Chase, wrote, “ . . . a landscape filled with Joshua trees has a nightmare effect even in broad daylight.”

So why this odd appearance? It comes from the way the Joshua tree sends up its flowers after the winter rains. Until one of the clusters of waxy, green-white blooms appears on top of the first stalk, no branches can begin growing. The new arm can then start to develop and take off in any direction, thus giving the Joshua tree the profile of a multi-armed clown who doesn’t know north from south, east from west. If the Mormons had used the Joshua tree to navigate their way to San Bernardino, they would never have gotten there!

Like all desert blooms, the Joshua tree depends on perfect climate: well-timed rains and a crisp winter freeze. In addition to ideal weather, it requires a visit from the yucca moth to pollinate its  flowers. The moth collects pollen while laying her eggs inside the flower ovary. As seeds develop and mature, the eggs hatch into larvae, which feed on the seeds. The Joshua tree needs the moth for pollination and the moth needs the tree to provide a few seeds for her young—a perfect partnership! 

The size of a Joshua tree depends on the soil and climatic conditions where the seed happens to sprout. If it’s too rocky or cold, the tree may not get very tall. The largest one in Joshua Tree National Park is well over 40 feet high with a crown circumference of at least 30 feet. Its trunk alone is almost 13 feet around. No one knows the exact age of this giant because the Joshua tree does not have growth rings. Botanists guess that this tree is between 600 and 1,000 years old.

Although severe winters and drought continually threaten Joshua trees, fire is their biggest enemy. Yet somehow they keep on living. Even when the main trunk and branches have been totally destroyed by lightning, a year or so later clones begin to push up their spikes from the base of a burned-out trunk. 

A whole community of wildlife depends on this unique tree for food and shelter. Some birds, such as the Scott’s oriole, nest in the living tree. Others, such as the woodpecker, come regularly to feed on resident insects. The wood rat builds its nest from the Joshua tree’s spiky leaves. Discarded limbs and the toppled body of the tree provide homes for the yucca night lizard and termites. Termites find protection from heat, cold, and drying winds in the decaying fiber. Dead or alive, the Joshua tree is the center of their world.

Perhaps you are more at ease with a pine or an oak or find welcome shade under that elm in your backyard, but to those who live in the Mojave Desert, the Joshua tree is a symbol of survival. Its haunting silhouette at sunset is a beautiful reminder they are home.