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Nolina longifolia (Mexican Grass Tree) – A slow growing interesting, unusual and beautiful small tree that can grow to 10 to 15 feet tall by as wide given enough time. It starts off looking like a single stemmed Bottle Palm, Beaucarnea recurvata, but with very long (3-5 foot) and pliable narrow gray-green leaves that when young hide the base of the plant completely. While it lacks the wide swelling basal caudex of the Bottle Palm, its thick trunk and stems develop a corky bark-like texture and with age this feature with the corky stems at height holding the attractive crown of pendulous leaves is quite dramatic. Mature plants flower in spring or summer with to 4 to 5 feet tall spikes holding many tiny unisexual white, sometimes tinged purple, flowers.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil and irrigate only occasionally to infrequently. Cold hardy to short duration temperatures down to at least 20° F. This is very showy plant in the garden or for a large container. Some consider it the most elegant of the Nolina species. It is drought tolerant and not bothered by deer.
The plant originally described as Nolina longifolia grows in seasonally dry forest in Oaxaca and Puebla but is often synonymized with the more widespread Nolina parviflora, which typically is described with narrower more erect leaves. The genus is named for 18th century French arboriculturist Abbé C. P. Nolin and the specific epithet is Latin meaning "with long leaves".
Massive specimen plants of Nolina longifolia can be viewed in older gardens in California, including at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, the Desert Garden at the Huntington Botanic Gardens, the Arizona Garden at the old Hotel Del Monte in Monterey that is now part of the Naval Postgraduate School and the Santa Barbara Cemetery. Existing specimens can also be found growing in Palo Alto and on estates in Montecito. The 2nd image from this website is a picture of a large specimen on the Las Tejas Estate next to Lotusland that was planted there in the late 19th century. When Francesco Franceschi (AKA Emanuele Orazio Fenzi) first arrived in Santa Barbara in 1895 he documented this species growing in numerous estate gardens in the Santa Barbara area.
The information displayed on this page about Nolina longifolia is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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