Trails List - Nolina

Nolina

The Nolina plants are grass type plants that grow in dry habitat types, such as desert grasslands, pinyon-juniper woodlands, and chaparral. They resemble thick tufts of coarse grass on dry hillsides. It may also grow alongside oaks, pines, and manzanitas. Along with other desert plants, it requires little water. Tiny serrations on the leaf edges make them feel rough to the touch. The decorative inflorescence bears thousands of tiny cream-colored flowers. There are 25 species in the Southwest of which 3 may be found in the Superstition area.

Bear grass (Nolina microcarpa) is a large plant that grows in clumps up to 8 feet wide. It produces a rosette of many narrow leaves each up to 4.3 feet long but only 1/2 inch wide with curly threads on ends of leaf points. The grass-like leaf blades are thick, rough, and serrated (fine teeth on their margins). When the plant flowers it produces a scape (a long, leafless flower stalk coming directly from a root) of 3 to 6 ft tall. The inflorescence is a panicle of flowers with tiny white tepals. The plant grows at elevations of 3000-6500 ft. These photos were taken on the Roger's Trough trail in February of 2016.

Bear Grass

Bigelow's Nolina

Bigelow's Nolina (Nolina bigelovii) grows in the driest desert areas and at elevations up to 4,900 ft. The trunk-like stem may exceed 6.5 ft in height, part of which may be underground. Plants typically have between 50 and 150 leaves, each around 4 inches wide at the base but only an inch or so across for the remainder of their 2 to 3 foot length. Young leaves have a finely toothed margin, while mature leaves have smooth partly shredding edges, separating into thin, coiled fibers. The treelike inflorescence may approach 8 ft in height. The tiny flowers each have six whitish tepals a few millimeters in length. Pictures taken from the web.

Parry's Beargrass (Nolina parryi) can be found in deserts and mountains at elevations up to 7000 feet. It is one of the largest and showiest of the 25 species in the Southwest. It can exceed 6.5 feet in height, its inflorescence reaching 13 feet. The trunk is up to 2 feet in diameter. Leaves are born in dense rosettes, each with up to 220 stiff linear leaves up to 4.5 feet long and 1.5 inches broad. The flowers are white, produced on the tall plume-like inflorescence that normally appears in late spring. Pictures taken from the web.

Parry's Beargrass

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