Introducing Yucky the Yucca
The desert’s most outspoken resident
Meet Yucky
Yucky the Yucca is New Mexico’s newest champion for a cleaner, brighter desert. She’s tough, resilient, full of personality, and she is never shy about speaking her mind. She has always loved being a yucca. After all, she’s New Mexico’s state plant. Her name once made her feel special and proud. But as litter began blowing across the desert, plastic bags, wrappers, and bottles became tangled in her spiky leaves. Before long, people started calling her “Yucky” for a very different reason.
And that makes her cranky, but can we blame her?!
The Voice of the Desert
Yucky is determined, strong and a little cranky, but she still stands tall. She speaks for the land and reminds us that trash doesn’t belong in New Mexico’s beautiful open spaces.
With a little help from her community, Yucky can bloom brightly again, and so can the desert we call home.
Help Yucky Clean Up New Mexico
Join a community clean-up event or organize one of your own. Together, we can protect our desert and create lasting change
Yucky’s Origin Story
Meet Yucky the Yucca, New Mexico’s newest champion for a cleaner, brighter desert. Yucky the Yucca always loved her name. After all, she is a yucca, and even more than that, she is the state plant of New Mexico. That makes her pretty important. For a long time her name felt special, something to be proud of. But over the years the desert winds began carrying trash across the land, and the litter started getting stuck in her spiky leaves. Plastic bags, wrappers, and bottles tangled in her “hair” until she looked messy and miserable. Before long people started calling her Yucky for another reason. Not because she was a yucca, but because she looked… well, yucky. This makes her cranky! Deep down she still loves her name, though. She needs a little help from the community to clean up the desert so she can bloom bright again and remind everyone how special she really is.
A tough girl who is full of personality, resilience, and a lot of sass. She represents the voice of the land itself. Tough, hardy, and unmistakably New Mexican, Yucky stands tall in the desert and isn’t shy about letting people know how she feels about trash blowing across her home.