Nolina bigelovii
Common: Bigelow nolina
Family: Agavaceae
Habitat: Southeastern California, western Arizona, and Baja California and Sonora, Mexico. Hillsides and canyons, 500 to 3000 ft. elevation
Temperature: Hardy to the low 20s F and perhaps lower.
Light: Full sun
Soil: Needs good drainage
Water: After two or three years of establishment, can survive on rainfall. During prolonged drought, provide supplemental irrigation.
Put in prominent place in landscape, where its distinctive form and showy flowers will be best appreciated. Fine textured plants such as Littleleaf Palo Verde makes a good contrast to its coarse texture. Resembles a yucca. Erect, woody, unbranched trunk to one foot thick. Height to 8 ft. and 6 ft. wide, usually with a flower stalk of 5 ft. Dark green stiff leaves, leathery and rough-margined. Evergreen. Leaves are narrow, to 4-1/2 feet long and 3/4" wide, in dense, basal cluster. White flowers tinged with green, numerous, to 1/8" long. Flowers appear on upright stalk to 8 feet long. Flowering upper half or two-thirds is branched, followed by thin, 3-lobed seed capsule. Blooms June, July. Occasionally poisonous to livestock. There are four species of Nolina in Arizona.