| Monocotyledon | Literature for Cordyline fruticosa
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2019. |
| Asparagaceae | Bibliography |
| Cordyline fruticosa | |
Common name(s): ki, ti (Hawaiian Islands, Marquesas Islands) |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Native range unknown, but possibly indigenous to the Himalayas, SE Asia, Malesia, and northern Australia, widely spread by early human migrations.In the Hawaiian Islands, a Polynesian introduction on Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Shrub or small tree, 2‒5 m tall; stems
unbranched or few-branched. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves petiolate; blade relatively thin, green or variegated white, pink, or red, lanceolate to
oblong-elliptic, usually 40‒80 cm long, 8‒16 cm wide, apex acuminate with a mucronate tip, base cuneate, margin entire; petiole usually 10‒18 cm long. |
|
| Flowers |
Flowers in paniculate inflorescences ca. 20‒30 cm long, each one sessile, subtended by 3 small bracts; tepals white, the outer ones tinged pink, 8‒15 mm long, becoming strongly reflexed. |
|
| Fruit |
Fruit red, globose, rarely developing in wild forms. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = ca. 152. |
|
| Notes |
Cultivated for its leaves which are
used for decoration, leis, wrapping food, lining pits for fermented breadfruit (ma), and its roots for their sugar content. Sometimes persisting around old house sites and along trails. The Marquesans had names for at least 6 types of auti
(Brown 1931). |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
