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Cordyline fruticosa
Also called Good Luck Plant, Palm Lily, Broadleaf Palm Lily, Tree Of Kings, Broad Leaved Palm Lily, Pacific Island Cabbage Tree, Ti Leaf
In Singapore: Red Dracaena, Cabbage Tree, Ti Plant, Tricoloured Dracaena, Good Luck Plant, Cabbage Palm, Palm Lily (Grown in Singapore)
Cordyline fruticosa, the ti plant or Good Luck Plant, is a palm-like evergreen shrub with a slender trunk and a crown of broad, colourful leaves. The key to growing it is bright light without harsh midday sun and steady moisture, with protection from cold.
Cordyline fruticosa is an evergreen flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is known by a wide variety of common names, including ti plant, palm lily, and cabbage palm.
The plant has been cultivated in Asia and Oceania, with a number of uses including food and traditional medicine. It is of great cultural importance to the traditional inhabitants of the Pacific Islands and Maritime Southeast Asia.
Its original native distribution is unknown, but it is believed to be native to the region from Bangladesh, to Mainland Southeast Asia, South China, Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, New Guinea, and Northern Australia. It has the highest morphological diversity in New Guinea and is believed to have been extensively cultivated there.
It was carried throughout Oceania by Austronesians, reaching as far as Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island at their furthest extent. In New Zealand, it grew only in the far north and is now extinct there, except on the Kermadec Islands. A particularly important type of ti in eastern Polynesia is a large green-leafed cultivar grown for their enlarged edible rhizomes. Unlike the ti populations in Southeast Asia and Near Oceania, this cultivar is almost entirely sterile in the further islands of eastern Polynesia. It can be propagated only by cuttings from the stalks or the rhizomes. It is speculated that this was the result of deliberate artificial selection, probably because they produce larger and less fibrous rhizomes more suitable for use as food.
The roots and young leaves can be cooked and eaten as survival food. The leaves can make a rain cloak.
Cabbage tree · Palm lily · Giant palm-lily · Dwarf Palm Lily · Broad Leaved Palm Lily · Red Palm Liliy · Narrow Leaf Palm Lily · Cordyline
[Contains information from Leaf Area Index (LAI) and Heritage Trees from data.gov.sg (National Parks Board), made available under the terms of the Singapore Open Data Licence version 1.0]
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cordyline fruticosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
