''Cordyline banksii'' (forest cabbage tree, ''tī ngahere'') is a monocot tree endemic to New Zealand. The specific epithet ''banksii'' refers to the 18th-century botanist

Joseph Banks Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...

Distribution

''Cordyline banksii'' tolerates a wide variety of habitats. It is common in coastal, lowland, and lower montane forests in the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

, widespread in the northern half of the

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

and Westland as far south as Haast. It has occasionally been reported from coastal Fiordland, but these sightings are unsubstantiated. It also occasionally occurs in subalpine regions in the South Island. In shrublands it occurs with ''

Cordyline pumilio ''Cordyline pumilio'', commonly known as the dwarf cabbage tree, pygmy cabbage tree or by its Māori names tī koraha or tī rauriki, is a narrow-leaved monocot shrub endemic to New Zealand. It usually grows up to tall, although rare example ...

'' and may form hybrids with it.

Description

Tī ngahere is a sparingly-branched cabbage tree up to tall. The leaves are lanceolate (somewhat paddle-shaped), up to long and from wide. The leaves are broad in the mid portion and droop from there. A prominent flat midrib runs the whole length of the leaf. The fruiting panicle is up to 2 metres in length. The flowers are white and pleasantly perfumed. The globe-shaped fruit are up to in diameter, and are white, bluish-white, or blue.

Threats

''C. banksii'' is not regarded as threatened. Unlike '' C. australis'' it seems to be resistant to a disease called "sudden decline", caused by the pathogen '' Phytoplasma australiense''.

Cultivation

''C. banksii'' is easy to grow. Fresh seed takes readily, and cuttings taken from the stems and trunk and shoots root quickly. It is rarer in cultivation than ''C. australis'' but is available from many nurseries and garden centres, often as a purple-leaved cultivar. Useful for steep slopes or poorly drained situations. The plant is hardy in USDA zones 10a and 11.

References

*Salmon J T, ''The Native Trees of New Zealand'', AH & AW Reed, Wellington, New Zealand, 1973. * *

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cordyline Banksii Trees of New Zealand banksii Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker