Banana Yucca Fruit

Banana yucca is one of about 40 yucca species, all of which are native to the New World. Most yuccas have dry hard fruits, but the fruits of banana yucca are fleshy and succulent. They look roughly like short fat green bananas, thus the name. These fruits were a traditional food of the Apache and Navajo. They were prepared by roasting or baking, stripping out the seeds, pounding the remaining flesh into a pulp, forming the pulp into flat cakes, and sun-drying them for later use. The resulting product is said to be nutritious, sweet, and delicious. The fruits were often picked before maturity and ripened off the plant to keep wildlife from eating them before they could be harvested. http://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/plant-of-the-week/yucca_baccata.shtml

Creator: El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Area: Northeast / Franklin Mountains

Source: El Paso Museum of Archaeology

Uploaded by: El Paso Museum of History