EVALUATION OF NATURAL POPULATIONS AND HABITAT OF BLUE PALM (Yucca rigida) IN MAPIMÃ, DURANGO, MÉXICO

Abstract

The improvement, conservation and propagation of Yucca have high perspectives in the North of México; due it is an important ornamental plant, endemic of the Comarca Lagunera. This study was developed in 2007 in natural populations of blue palm (Yucca rigida) in the municipality of Mapimí, Durango, México. The objective was to characterize the habitat and natural populations in different altitude, based on population density and the characteristics of plant height, number of branches, stem diameter, number of fruit per plant, number of seeds per fruit and germination percentage. Results showed that growth of Yucca rigida occurs on superficial soils. It is associated with desert vegetation such as rosetophylla and microphylla, about 1200 to 1300 meter above the sea level. During this study, was found a population density of 890 plants ha-1, and the plant height and stem diameter showed a tendency to increase when the altitude increased.  A low percentage of immature seeds were found, showing that the pollinizer has a good efficiency, moreover offer a high biodiversity of plants, due to the crossed pollination, determining the diversity of population. It is necessary to increase the number of researches to quantify the plant potential and to conservation of genetic variability of this population.