Spoon-Leaf Yucca

By Pierre-Joseph Redouté

Combine science and fine art with this magnificent re-creation of the painting Yucca Gloriosa, which is popularly referred to as the Spoon-Leaf Yucca or Moundlily Yucca. “Yucca Gloriosa” was painted by the world-famous botanist, Pierre-Joseph Redouté, known as “The Raphael of Flowers.”

As evidenced in his paintings, Redouté was brilliant at endowing rigid defensive plants from the desert with grace and lyricism. In the illustration, one sees a dominant central inflorescence laden with elegant white flowers shaped like bells. They contrast starkly with the spreading fan of sword-like blueish green leaves surrounding the base of the plant. Redouté employed a special printing technique called stipple engraving, which entails creating pictures by using several thousand ink dots, giving him the ability to create the realistic field of light with rich tones.