Days before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Fraser Rummens visited Joshua Tree in California, home of the iconic plant of the same name. Here, he recounts his journey.
IT has long been a dream of mine to tear through the Californian desert in a Ford Mustang. The sun blazing, the top down and the music up, the open road stretching out forever. Pure Americana, the Wild West.
I was fortunate enough to live this dream in March of 2020, literally days before the entire world shut down.
I was in California to celebrate my 30th birthday, and my partner surprised me with a two-night stay at Pioneertown – a small Old West-themed town, built in 1945, which was used as the set for many Westerns and early television shows such as Judge Roy Bean, The Cisco Kid, Annie Oakley and Range Rider. A stone’s throw from the on-site motel is iconic honky-tonk, barbecue restaurant and music venue, Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace, which has featured in the late Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations and hosted live performances from the likes of Paul McCartney, Queens of the Stone Age and Arctic Monkeys over the years.
The area features miles and miles of equestrian trails, which wind across vast expanses covered with yuccas, manzanita, juniper and pinyon pine trees, to the tops of the lava mesas.
Pioneertown is surrounded by the Wildlands Conservancy-owned volcanic mesas, Sawtooth Mountains and Preserve lands leading to the San Bernardino National Forest. The 25,000-acre Pioneertown Mountains Preserve descends from high piney 7,800-foot ridges into the Pioneertown Valley. From Pioneertown it is a four-mile drive to the town of Yucca Valley, named for the Yucca genus of trees and shrubs, and adjacent to the town’s southern border is Joshua Tree, home of the sprawling National Park of the same name. Established in 1994, the Joshua Tree National Park spans some 794,000 acres and welcomes 2.8 million visitors annually.
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The town of Joshua Tree is a strip of quirky shops, bars and cafes, but the big draw is, of course, the plant for which it is named, Yucca brevifolia. The Joshua tree is native to the Southwestern United States (Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah) and to north-western Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa and Sonora).
Largely confined to the Mojave Desert, the Joshua tree is to that arid landscape what the palm tree (Arecaceae) is to the metropolis of Los Angeles, or the coastal redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) is to the lush green National Parks of Northern California. Iconic. U2 even named an album after it.
Legend has it that the Joshua tree was named after the biblical figure by a group of Mormon settlers crossing the Mojave Desert in the mid-19th century. Its branches, stretched outward, were said to resemble Joshua in prayer. Around the same time, ranchers and miners arrived looking to raise cattle and strike it rich, mining for gold. The Joshua tree’s limbs were used by these hardy folks for fencing and corrals.
It’s a curious-looking thing, the Joshua tree. Also known as izote de desierto (‘desert dagger’ in Spanish), it is jagged with thick, squat branches and shaggy grey-green leaves. The tallest Joshua trees stand some 40-plus feet tall. New seedlings may grow at an average rate of 7.6 cm per year in their first 10 years, then only about 3.8 cm per year. It has a top-heavy branch system, but also has a deep root system, reaching down to 11 m. The trunk consists of thousands of small fibres and lacks annual growth rings, which makes determining the tree’s age difficult. In spring, the Joshua tree’s panicles bear greenish-white flowers that are pollinated by the yucca moth (Tegeticula synthetica).
A member of the Agave family, Yucca brevifolia was, until recently, considered a giant member of the Lily family. However, modern DNA studies led to the division of that formerly huge family into 40 distinct plant families. Because of these studies, Joshua trees now have the more accurate Agave family designation.
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Like the California fan palm, Washingtonia filifera, the Joshua tree is a monocot, in the subgroup of flowering plants that also includes grasses and orchids. Not to be confused with the Mojave yucca (Yucca schidigera), this close relative can be distinguished by its longer, wider leaves and fibrous threads curling along leaf margins. Both types of yuccas can be seen growing together in Joshua Tree Park. As well as the Mojave Desert, the Joshua tree can be found growing next to a saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert in western Arizona or mixed with pines in the San Bernardino Mountains.
It was announced last year that the Joshua tree would be considered for protection under the California Endangered Species Act, making it the first plant species to be given protection by law as its habitat becomes less viable. The Guardian reported that only 0.2 per cent of the tree’s current habitat in Joshua Tree National Park would remain viable amid unmitigated climate change, according to research published in the journal Ecosphere.
In September 2020, the California Fish and Game Commission unanimously voted to grant western Joshua trees candidate status under the California Endangered Species Act, giving them legal protection during a year-long review to determine whether the species should be formally protected.
In February 2021, a Fresno County Superior Court judge rejected an effort by construction and real estate interests to strip away legal protections that currently apply to the Joshua tree.
“This is a critical victory for these beautiful trees and their fragile desert ecosystem,” said Brendan Cummings, conservation director for the Centre for Biological Diversity. “If Joshua trees are to survive the inhospitable climate we’re giving them, the most important thing we must do is protect their habitat, and this decision ensures recent protections will remain in place.”
The Fish and Game Commission is scheduled to make a final decision on listing the Joshua tree as a threatened species by the end of this year. If the species wins permanent protection, state and local agencies will have to manage threats to them, including developing a recovery plan outlining a strategy to protect the species in the face of climate change.
Prior to leaving, I stopped to look at the town sign, before ambling into a grove of young plants for one last look. I had made my pilgrimage to the Mojave like countless others before me, but it was time to go. I fired up the Mustang and headed east, back towards civilisation, with the prickly silhouette of the Joshua tree in my rear-view and the hazy, early evening sky above me.
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