Classification
 Nomenclature
Scientific Name:
Cordyline Comm. ex R.Br., Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holland. 230 (1810), nom. cons.
Synonymy:
  • = Dracaenopsis Planch. (1850)
Vernacular Name(s):
Cabbage tree; Ti; Tī eiei
 Description

Tufted to arborescent perennials. Trunk woody, with characteristic secondary thickening, the stout axis continued vertically downwards in an equally stout rhizome (sometimes 2). Leaves crowded in tufts at ends of branched or unbranched stems, long-linear to narrow-elliptic, ± petiolate, with strong fibrous veins. Inflorescence a terminal panicle soon pushed aside by a leafy shoot from axil of adjacent leaf; bracts leaf-like. Flowers bisexual, small, actinomorphic, pedicellate; each pedicel with 2 chaffy bracts; perianth-tube short, becoming ± fleshy; lobes subequal, spreading. Staminal-filaments ± flattened; anthers dorsifixed and versatile. Ovary superior; stigma ± 3-lobed; ovules several to many in each locule. Fruit a globose berry. Seeds usually curved, black.

[From: Healy and Edgar (1980) Flora of New Zealand. Volume 3.]

 Biostatus
Indigenous (Non-endemic)
Number of species in New Zealand within Cordyline Comm. ex R.Br.
CategoryNumber
Indigenous (Endemic)4
Indigenous (Non-endemic)1
Exotic: Fully Naturalised1
Exotic: Casual1
Total7
 Bibliography
Brown, R. 1810: Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van-Diemen. Johnson, London.
Mabberley, D.J. 2008: Mabberley's plant book, a portable dictionary of plants, their classification and uses. Edition 3. Cambridge University Press.