Re: Ti Plant? (not)
"Sean A. O'Hara" wrote:
>
> At 08:18 PM 12/19/00 -0700, Charles Dills wrote:
> > A friend sent me a picture for identification and it's a bit
> >out of my range. I think it's called a Ti plant. The genus is either
> >Cordyline or Draceana. I attach it and hope that one (or more) of you
> >people can put a species to it. Chances are it is a hot house plant
> >and may have been cultured beyond recognition . But please try!!!
>
> Charles -
>
> Your photo is of Dracaena marginata, a common houseplant - perhaps so
> common that few people think about what it actually is. Often called
> 'dragon tree', this is a misnomer stolen from the true dragon tree, D.
> draco from the Canary Islands, and recently discussed in this forum
> (http://www.support.net/Medit-Plants/plants/Dracaena.draco.html). I am
> sure this houseplant has innocently gained some cache' from transference of
> this name from its cousin.
>
> The Ti plant is Cordyline (a closely related genus) terminalis, and has
> very much wider leaves.
In fact as Olwyn pointed out "Ti" is also the generalized name for a
Cordyline in Maori as well as Haiwaian. These two languages are
surprisingly quite closely related and hint at a common origin way back
in time when one party presumably went north and the other south.
As Sean indicates the Polynesian Ti tree (C.terminalis) from Haiwaii has
wider leaves than the plant in the pic., as do all the NZ speces bar
one, C pumilio. However this does not otherwise resemble Chas' plant as
it has no appreciable stem.
There is a hybrid of C pumilio with C banksii (" Red Fountain") which
has both narrow leaves and a short trunk but its leaves are a vivid
purple red.
Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
