Foothills Beargrass
Nolina erumpens
Family: Asparagaceae
This beargrass is a mounding type, but enormous, reaching more than 8’ tall and high. Dark cream flowers occur on comparatively broad bloom spikes that may only just barely emerge from the foliage. This species is rare and is not often seen in cultivation outside of botanical gardens.
Full to part sun, low water (supplement water in summer about once or twice a month). Hardy to 0°F.
Taken for rheumatism, for pneumonia and lung hemorrhages; the stalks were eaten; the seeds were made a flour or meal for bread or mush; the fruit was eaten raw or preserved; plant was used as a dye, for basketry, rugs, mats and other forms of weaving, for brushes, rope, and cord; the roots were used for soap; and the dried leaves were used as cooking tools.
Larval host for the Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus), the snout moth Sosipatra rileyella, and yucca moths (Prodoxidae family). Native solitary bees will use the dry stalks as larval nests.
Nolina is named for Abbe Pierre Charles Nolin (b. 1717) a French arboriculturalist, while the species "erumpens" means to grow vigorously from a surface, eventually bursting through or rising above it. There are 30 species of Nolina with the principal distribution being in Mexico and extending into the southern United States.
native to the Trans-Pecos region of west Texas, extending into northern Mexico, primarily in the state of Chihuahua; its distribution is concentrated in rocky areas and brushland arroyos within this region.