[1]nothing that comes from the desert expresses its extremes better than the unhappy growth of the
tree yuccas. tormented, thin forests of it stalk drearily in the high mesas, particularly in that
triangular slip that fans out eastward from the meeting of the sierras and coastwise hills. the
yucca bristles with bayonet-pointed leaves, dull green, growing shaggy with age like an old
[5] man's tangled gray beard, tipped with panicles of foul, greenish blooms. after its death, which is
slow, the ghostly hollow network of its woody skeleton, with hardly power to rot, makes even
the moonlight fearful. but it isn't always this way. before the yucca has come to flower, while
yet its bloom is a luxurious, creamy, cone-shaped bud of the size of a small cabbage, full of
sugary sap, the indians twist it deftly out of its fence of daggers and roast the prize for their
[10] own delectation.

why does the author use the words "ghostly hollow" and "woody skeleton" to describe the yucca tree (line 6)?

to communicate the plant's extraordinary beauty
to emphasize the danger of the plant's leaves
to highlight the plant's frightening appearance
to reveal the author's preoccupation with death