brown 4

The brown thatch that the tree yuccas form is one of the most attractive browns that I know of. The faded leaves form a skirt similar to a hula skirt, surrounding the trunk of the tree. The skirt insulates and protects the trunk from injury from sun and cold. This one is the Yucca thomsoniana in my front yard, but some other tree yuccas have nice skirts also, particularly Yucca rostrata which forms an especially neat looking skirt. Some tree yucca skirts are rather ragged looking. Even so, it irks me when I see the skirts trimmed back to the trunk, or worse, peeled off the trunk. Not only does it look unnatural, like those poodle junipers, but the plant looses the protection that the skirt provides. Once the skirt is trimmed, it cannot be replaced (except perhaps by a knitted scarf, which would even be more odd looking).