Plants acaulescent, occasionally arborescent, cespitose; rosettes from vertical, subterranean, branched caudices. Stems 0-2.5 m. Leaf blades stiff, somewhat carinate, concavo-convex, 80-170 cm × 9-18 mm, not glaucous; margins serrulate, with close-set cartilaginous teeth; apex lacerate. Scape 1.5-3 dm, to 1.2 cm diam. Inflorescences paniculate, 4-9 dm × 7-18 cm, contained within rosettes, not surpassing leaves; bracts caducous; bractlets to 2 mm, margins hyaline. Flowers: tepals 1.6-2.2 mm; fruiting pedicel ascending, proximal to joint 1-1.5 mm, distal to joint 1.5-2.5 mm. Capsules thin-walled, inflated, 2.6-4.4 × 3.5-5.7 mm, indistinctly notched at apex. Seeds closely invested in capsules, rounded, bursting ovary walls, 1.5-2.5 × 1-1.5 mm.

Flowering late spring. Rocky hillsides of limestone or igneous slopes in shrub-grasslands; 900--2300 m; Tex.; n Mexico.

The leaves of Nolina erumpens have teeth that are at right angles to the margin. Compared with N. texana in common range, N. erumpens flowers much later in the spring.