Woodland Beargrass

Nolina greenei is resurrected for the plants of Nolina that occur from central New Mexico north to the Black Mesa region of Oklahoma and just into southeastern Colorado. They are similar to N. texana with respect to the inflorescence contained within the leaves, persistent elongated bracts, and seeds that burst the ovary wall and remain attached. They differ primarily in their broader, slightly serrulate leaves (although some leaves may be entire), copper-colored seeds, and an open woodland-grassland habitat.

Plants acaulescent, cespitose; rosettes from vertical, subterranean, branched caudices. Leaf blades wiry, stiff or slightly lax, concavo-convex, 45–90(–110) cm × (4–)5–8 mm, not glaucous; margins remotely serrulate with close-set, cartilaginous teeth, or sometimes entire; apex lacerate; scape and inflorescence leaf blades curling, 10–40 cm. Scape curling, 0.5–2 dm. Inflorescences paniculate, (3–)3.5–6 (–6.5) dm × 8–14(–20) cm; bracts persistent, lower bracts to 40 cm; bractlets 2–5 mm, apex lacerate. Flowers: tepals white, sometimes with purple midveins, 2.2–3.3 mm, margins hyaline; pedicel erect, proximal to joint 1–1.5 mm, distal to joint 2.5–4.5 mm. Capsules hyaline, thin-walled, inflated, 2.1–3.8 × 3.8–5.2 mm, distinctly notched distally. Seeds becoming bronze with red tinge, rounded, bursting ovary walls, 3–3.9 mm diam.

Colo., N.Mex., Okla.

Flowering mid--late spring.

Rocky, limestone hillsides, volcanic flows, open juniper-pinyon pine-oak woodlands and adjacent grasslands; 1200--1900m.

Nolina greenei, woodland beargrass, is a plant species native to the United States. It is widespread in New Mexico and also reported from Colorado (Las Animas County), Texas (Deaf Smith and Garza Counties) and Oklahoma (Cimarron County).

Nolina greenei grows in rocky locations such as limestone outcrops and old lava flows, often in grasslands or in pine-oak woodlands at elevations of 1200–2000 m. It is a perennial rosette forming plant with an underground caudex. Leaves are long and narrow, sometimes over 100 cm long but rarely more than 1 cm wide. They sometimes have sharp teeth along the margins. Flowering stalk is up to 20 cm high, with a large panicle of white flowers with purple midveins. Fruit is a dry, inflated capsule up to 5 mm across.