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Nolina wolfii (Giant Nolina) - A large slow growing evergreen succulent tree-like shrub to 12 feet tall but usually seen from 4 to 8 feet tall with one or more stems bearing rosettes of many 2 to 3 foot long olive green slightly-serrated leaves. Mature (35+ year old) plants produce tall stalks bearing small lightly fragrant white flowers.
Plant in full sun to light shade in a well-drained soil. Irrigate infrequently if at all. Hardy below 0 F.
Though in recent treatment Nolina wolfii has been synonymized with Nolina parryi, the Mojave desert beargrass, Nolina wolfii has long been recognized as the largest of the California Nolina and has a distribution that is further to the north and east of Nolina parryi. It can be found mixed with typical Nolina parryi from the San Jacinto Moutains through Joshua Tree National Park and north to the Kingston Mountains, a range surrounded by flat and dry lowlands that lies midway between Barstow and Death Valley. It has notably larger and stouter trunks with more robust flower spikes than the more southern and western Nolina parryi. In Phillip Munz's "A Flora of Southern California" (UC Press 1974) the taxonomic key separated the two by foliage characteristics with Nolina wolfii having leaves 15-30 mm. wide and Nolina parryi with leaves 8-15 mm. wide and listed Nolina parryi as 3-10 decimeters tall while N. wolfii was listed at 4 to 5 meters tall.
The genus was named by Andre Michaux (1746-1802), a French botanist sent to North America by King Louis XVI. His name honors Abbé Pierre Charles (P.C.) Nolin, a French agriculturist and horticultural author. The specific epithet "wolfii" authored by Munz in 1950 was to honor Dr. Carl Wolf, botanist at the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden while "parryi" was a name given by Sereno Watson, American botanist and curator of the Harvard Herbarium, to honor Dr. Charles C. Parry English born American botanist and "King of Colorado botany". Images of this plant growing in the Kingston Mountains courtesy of Todd Masilko.
The information displayed on this page about Nolina wolfii is based on the research we have conducted about it in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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