17" mid-2009 MBP, 3.06 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo: can it take 16GB RAM?
If you mean either the 'SD' or the 'Mid 2009' then no, it can take 8GB only.  

EveryMac is a fabulous resource for that type of info, including in some cases, whether a machine can actually take more RAM than the Apple official original spec claims.