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But those protections also extend to the wider ecosystem — such as the yucca moth.

“If we had waged a campaign on behalf of the yucca moth, I doubt there would have been as much public attention to it as the Joshua tree. But protecting one, protects the other, and acts as an umbrella to protect entire desert ecosystems,” he said.

Yucca moth caterpillars, kangaroo rats and ground squirrels eat their seeds.

The researchers looked at both the eastern and western Joshua trees, which have some differences — for instance, each is pollinated by a different species of yucca moth — but also hybridize and occupy overlapping climates, as the study notes.

On the other hand, Joshua trees rely solely on the yucca moth for pollination.