Growing up in Los Angeles, Karla Tatiana Vasquez says it was always a thrill seeing flor de izote in the kitchen — the delicate, cream-colored blossoms of the giant yucca.

"I would always see a bag, like a Home Depot bag, filled with this flower," she says. "And you could hear the rustling of the bag and my mom getting the flowers out and saying, 'Karla, tenemos flor de izote.' And then my dad would walk in and be like, 'Quién encontró la flor de izote?' Who found it, you know?'"

Flor de izote is the national flower of El Salvador, the country Vasquez's parents fled when she was just a baby. But the flower is more than a national symbol — it's a seasonal delicacy, and when it's in bloom, it's ubiquitous at L.A.'s Salvadoran street market.

The giant yucca is native to Mexico and Central

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