Plants perennial, cespitose or arborescent, acaulescent to
short-caulescent, scapose, from branched, woody caudices or
bulblike structures; usually forming colonies with few to many
rosettes. Stems to 25 dm. Leaves forming rosettes; blade linear,
not rigid or fibrous, bases broadly expanding, margins serrulate
or entire. Scape 0.5-25 dm. Inflorescences paniculate, rarely
racemose, 3-18 dm; bracts caducous or occasionally persistent.
Flowers 2-5 per node, functionally unisexual, pistillate flowers
with staminodes, staminate flowers with reduced pistils; tepals
white to cream or tan, 1.3-5 mm, apex glandular; ovary superior;
pedicel jointed near middle. Fruits capsular, 3-locular,
3-lobed, thin-walled or sometimes firm-walled, often inflated,
mostly notched at base and apex or rounded distally; dehiscent,
often splitting irregularly. Seeds closely or loosely invested
in capsules, globose, turgid. x = 19. In areas of west Texas,
New Mexico, and Arizona, the species of Nolina are not always
well defined. There is