STATE FLOWER
New Mexico's State Flower: Yucca
The yucca has been New Mexico's official state flower since 1927 — a striking desert plant that belongs, somewhat surprisingly, to the lily family.
A Desert Plant with Tree-Like Scale
Yucca produces tall spikes of white, waxy, bell-shaped blooms rising from a rosette of sharp, sword-like leaves — an unmistakable silhouette across New Mexico's high desert. Some yucca species can grow to the height of a small tree over many decades, becoming defining features of the landscapes they inhabit.
QUICK FACT
Yucca flowers are pollinated almost exclusively by yucca moths, a relationship so specialized that neither the plant nor the moth can reproduce without the other.
