Evening star., 1952-11-17
Ieoping Yucca Story
Cleared Up at Last
Article on Plant Written
With Tongue in Cheek
By Thomas R. Henry

With Tongue in Cheek
By Thomos R. Henry
Now-the great yucca hoax
1t promises to go down in history with
the great moon hoax of Edgar Allen
Poe more than century ago. It's per-
petrator-the Scientific Monthly, Off.
cial organ of the American Association
for the Advancement Of Science.
In section devoted to current adj
vances and discoveries in science this
month there was published, entirely with
tongue in cheek of course, an article
on Calfornia's jumping yucca which
sometimes shoots up 20 to 80 feet in a
Few seconds. The author was DR.. Gus
tav Albrecht Of Tufts College. The
account was most convincingly factual,
with photographs to back it up.
"One OF the most amazing and still
unexplained phenomena in botany" DR..
Albrecht wrote, is the schuss-yucca. a
rare variety which occurs here and
there in the San Gabriel Mountains,
north Of Pasadena, a locale noted for
its queer fauna and flora. The normal
variety OF this yucca, yucca whipplei,
grows for many years as a hemisphere
OF sharp and awesome spines-Spanish
bayonet. Then some spring day a large
shoot rises 10 to 20 feet in a period of
TWO or three weeks, blooms and dies.
Ihe Schuss-yucca does this in matter
OF minutes or even seconds.
Refers to Photographs.
See photographs" DR.. Albrecht here
comments.
THE first thorough investigation of
this amazing plant" he continues, was
made by the eminent German botanist.
Prof. Ferdinand Grunspann, who visited
Chilao Flat, riding on a burro, in 1890
and who devoted volumes Is and IA of
his exhaustive 20-volume work Hand.
buch der Yucca, Leipzig, Schmutzig-
verlag. 1893, now out Of print and hard
to find) to description of this remark
able variety.
Although most of the professors
work was undoubtedly accurate he ap-
parently let himself be taken in by
certain tall stories of the Indians one
tale In particular tending to discredit
his whole story. Grunspann tells of the
Spanish desperate and cattle rustler
VaSquez being impaled in mid-air by a
schuss-yucca while he was jumping over
the plant. This story possesses un-
doubted charm but is probably a canard.
The Schuss-yucca does shoot up with
amazing rapidity in q matter of seconds
but the shoot Is soft like giant aspara.
gus and Is frequently eaten by deer.
Hence 1t could not reasonably be ex.
pected to harm full-grown Spaniard.
II determined to investigate the
schuss-yucca and if possible bring back
incontrovertible Photographic evidence.
My model and I, laden with cameras
and fifth of anti-venom the rattle
snakes are said to be unusually swift
and accurate at Chilao Flat, haunted
the region for days. We finally were
rewarded for our perseverance, as the
accompanying photographs show.
used an automatic camera taking pic.
lures at one-second intervals, and al
though the exposures were only for a
hundredth Of a second there is little
blurring Of the fast-moving sprout."
Humorous Take-off.
All this was intended only as
humorous take-off on some of the fly
ing saucer storieS backed up with
authentic photographs which were
circulating early in the fall The Amer.
lean Association staff supposed the
hoax would be obvious to every reader
and were taken off their feet by the
protests characterizing DR.. Albrecht as
a liar. faker and completely without
principle. Some, of course, recognized
the story for what it was and wrote to
the association with additional observa.
tions OF their own on the strange plant.
The shadows on the photographs
showed clearly that matter of at least
eight hours must have elapsed while
they were being taken. matter of only
a few seconds according to DR.. Albrecht.
Belated recognition of this saved q ma.
tional news syndicate from falling for
the story.
One correspondent wrote accusing
DR.. Albrecht of laziness, but defending
the photographs He had not had the
energy, it was asserted, to read through
the massive two volumes of the Ger
man professor. Otherwise he would not
have missed one obscure detail recorded
by the mythical GrunSpann that
while the yucca was springing up the
whole behavior of the universe was
mysteriously affected and the sun raced
clear around the sky in less than q
second.
Still. it seems, lots of folks swallowed
the fake hook. line and sinker-as they
are likely to do in these days when
everybody Is looking for miracles. scien-
tiflc or otherwise.