Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Cordyline australis

Common name

Cabbage Tree, Ti kouka, New Zealand Cabbage-tree

Family

Asparagaceae

Where found

Naturalised. Mainly Sydney area. Occasionally elsewhere.

Notes

Palm-like shrub or tree to 12 m high or more. Fruit fleshy. Stems with horizonatal scars circling the stem when young. Leaves clustered at the top of the trunk, 30–100 cm long, 10–60 mm wide, many-nerved, the midrib slightly broader than the rest; stalks indistinct and only slightly narrower than the remainder of leaf. Flowers sweetly scented, with 6 white 'petals', each 5–6 mm long, fused together at the base. Flowers in branched clusters 60–150 cm long. Fruit whitish, globular, about 4 mm in diameter.

Family Asteliaceae in PlantNET.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Cordyline~australis (accessed 18 April 2021)