Nolina palm

Description

Common name:

Pony Tail Palm, Bottle Palm, Elephant’s Foot Tree, Ponytail Plant, Nolina Palm, Elephant Palm, Big Base Palm, Desert Pony Tail Palm, Nolina, Nolina Sole, Ponytail Nolina  palm.

Distribution and habitat:

Beaucarnea Recurvata is native to the dry regions of Texas and Mexico. It is an evergreen perennial growing up to 6m (20 feet) with a noticeable expanded caudex, for the purpose of storing water, this plant being able to store a year-long water supply in its bulbous trunk.  The single palm-like stem produces terminal tufts of strap-shaped, recurved leathery leaves with occasional panicles of small white flowers.

Mature plants develop an unusual, swollen, bottle-like base (the storage organ that allows them to withstand very dry conditions) with several long, thin stems. The stems are topped by the crowns of pendulous strap-like leaves which give the plant one of its common names – the Ponytail Plant. The plant is also referred to as the Elephant Foot Tree because of the swollen shape base, coupled with the greyish-brown colour and the wrinkled texture of the bark