do you know? josephine or debbie is it really native to texas?
nolina texana....bears grass...devils' shoestring....what
Yup. All over northern Bexar County. Both Nolina texana (Beargrass) and Nolina Lindheimeri (Devil's Shoestring)
...and east TX. The old timers here used it for weaving the seats of chairs. I've seen some vintage ones that are still sound. They also used to weave nets to holds hams in the smokehouse from the bear grass. It would not catch fire or dry out and break. BTW, it is toxic to livestock.
yall got any pictures? do we love it?
and agaveguy i didn't realize that was 2 different grasses. thanks for clearing that up.
after looking them up in the plant files, they are both on my want list!
Here is Nolina texana;
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NOTE
Nolina parryi
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NOPA
Nolina microcarpa
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NOMI
Nolina lindheimeriana
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NOLI
Nolina erumpens
http://wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=NOER
Believe or not I don't have any of them, I guess I better get busy.
Josephine.
Lots of Nolina lindheimeriana came with the property. I just love things that don't have to ever be watered!
now see there. we love it. something we almost forgot about. why ain't that growing anywhere around here? is it good to put a native plant from the same state in a "non-native"
part of the state? does anything eat it? what critters like it?
i love it when i can find something so wonderful only to discover that it should have been here anyway. now ain't that something.
I'm pretty sure the deer eat the blooms. Not sure what eats the seeds, but I notice they disappear in years like this.
linda are you saying that it goes dormant? and you have the lindheimeri (sp)? is the bloom pinkish? when does it bloom? and where is medina county?
No, I meant that the seeds disappear...maybe wildlife eat it, with the drought and all. That is, when the deer even leave enough flowers so it can form seeds. I believe the bloom is white...maybe in May here. Medina Co. is west of San Antonio.
so do most of these look and feel like yucca?
The leaves are flexible, not stiff like most yuccas. Yuccae? Yucciyae? Beargrass has almost round, dark green leaves that are unarmed. You can run the leaves through your hands and not donate blood. Devil's Shoestring has flat, light green leaves with very small serrated teeth along the edges. A wrong move and amputation might result. With the drought some plants are blooming now (because I gave them a drink). Otherwise in spring, like Linda says. Photo of the Devil's Shoestring. It puts its flowers way up out of the foliage. Beargrass flowers are tucked down into the foliage.
hey linda look at frostweed's picture again. one of those photos shows a flower head that looks pink.
http://wildflower.org/gallery/result.php?id_image=528
thanks agaveguy. i'm still not clear as a bell on the difference but i think i am going to look into trading with some of yall that have these so i can see for myself.
one more thing...........are these the kind of plants that if you have the room you would want to have a whole row of them or is one plant enough?
Well, it says flowers on there, but it is really the seed capsules shown in that pic. See the url below...I just love this site, BTW! One would be okay as an accent plant...hopefully eventually it would get big enough to spread out into a large clump. Or more than one, if there is room enough. Oh, and the botanical term for that family is Agavaceae.
I knew as soon as I hit send I'd forgotten the url:
http://www.sbs.utexas.edu/bio406d/images/pics/nol/nolina_lindheimeriana.htm
This message was edited Jul 7, 2009 10:55 PM
let me run this by yall ......linheimer whatever it is is also called devil's shoestring and it is the one with the pointy sharp things. bear grass has different roundish leaves and doesn't hurt. but it's flower stalk stays low to the ground among the leaves.