Cordyline indivisa in the British Isles Gary Dunlop1 Despite its common name of Mount Usher Garden in County leaves, radiating from the top of the mountain cabbage tree, Cordyline Wexford, south of Dublin, courtesy of trunk, which can be up to 2 m long indivisaa is the most subtropical Mr Walpole (Stapf, 1922). and 150 mm at its widest, gradually looking cabbage tree from New tapering to the apex (Moore and Zealand. It is also known as the Edgar, 1970; Poole and Adams, broad-leaved cabbage tree and in 1990). The conspicuous central vein New Zealand has a range of Mäori is orange, with many fi ner orange names, including töï. veins running the length of the leaves, although these are less conspicuous The species was fi rst described by on the glaucous undersides, or the Prussian Johann Georg Forster even on the upper surface from any in 1786 under the name Dracaena distance. The maximum height of indivisa (Forster, 1786). He and his the tree is about 8 m although a father Johann Rheinhold Forster maximum of 6–7 m is more common accompanied James Cook on his in cultivation when the plants are second voyage around the world as not drawn up in dense forest. The the offi cial naturalists, and found this leaves are evergreen with the older species in Dusky Sound, Fiordland, leaves persisting for several years in south-west New Zealand. before dying and turning brown as Among other name changes, it was the sap drains from them. During subsequently transferred to its current their senescence they gradually name, Cordyline indivisa. droop before fi nally hanging vertically Although it was introduced into beside the trunk. At this stage they cultivation in England almost 150 can be fairly readily removed with a years ago, Cordyline indivisaa is not so downward tug, starting with the lowest Fig. 1 The earliest colour illustration of widely known or grown as the almost Cordyline indivisa, published in 1860 in one, as the base of the leaves overlap ubiquitous C. australiss or cabbage L’Illustration Horticole, tab. 264. Image one another where they attach to the tree (also known in the UK as the courtesy Missouri Botanical Garden, trunk. cabbage palm), found in coastal www.botanicus.org. Some people may consider the plant areas around the British Isles and As the common name mountain to be at its most exotic looking at introduced into cultivation several cabbage tree suggests, Cordyline about 5–6 years old and about 2 m decades earlier. indivisaa typically grows at higher tall, with several years of foliage It is not clear exactly when C. indivisa elevations than C. australiss and thus radiating out in an almost spherical was fi r st introduced into cultivation in may be relatively hardier than its shape and the oldest leaves touching the UK but a specimen, which must more common relative. Lawrie Metcalf the ground, but the young trunk still have been several years old, was put notes “being a plant of high rainfall disguised by the attached foliage. It up for award by John Standish of the regions and growing in cool mountain is only at this stage that a fl eeting Sunningdale Nurseries (Berkshire, forests which are frequently shrouded resemblance to an Agavee could England) in 1860 and received a in mist, it demands a cool moist be imagined, though one without ‘First Class Certifi cate’ (FCC) from soil, and in warm climates a cool succulent leaves. One such plant the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) rather shady position in the garden” is illustrated by Cave and Paddison (Anon., 1860). Ambroise Verschaffelt, (Metcalf, 1987). Although not as (1999), although the size of this plant the editor of L’Illustrations Horticole ubiquitous as C. australis, C. indivisa is diffi cult to judge from photographs. based in Ghent (Belgium), was quick nevertheless has an extensive However, my photograph of a similar off the mark and published the fi rst natural range growing in subalpine specimen (Fig. 2), with Jeff Irons the illustration of Standish’s plant, in forests from Hunua and Coromandel President of the Australasian Plant colour, the same year (Verschaffelt, Ranges south to Banks Peninsula and Society (UK) alongside, provides a 1860). It shows a plant about 2–3 Fiordland (Moore and Edgar, 1970; good sense of scale. years old (Fig. 1). Presumably the Fisher et al., 1988; Simpson, 2000). While the date of fi rst introduction of editors of Curtis’ Botanical Magazine Cordyline indivisaa as its specifi c C. indivisaa is not known with certainty, preferred to wait until the fl owers name implies forms a stout, usually two nurserymen, Mr B.S. Williams and could be illustrated before featuring single-stemmed tree, with a normally Mr J. Burley, both exhibited specimens the plant, which they fi nally did in unbranched head of pale green at the horticultural exhibition of 1869 1922 from material supplied from 1 35 Ballyrogan Park, Newtownards, Co Down, BT23 4SD, Northern Ireland; [email protected] New Zealand Garden Journal, 2009, Vol. 12(1) 20 as part of displays of ‘stove foliage’ confusion was fi nally resolved with In reasonable moist and shaded plants (plants that require warm the fi rst publication of a photograph growing conditions, based on my greenhouse conditions in winter), and of a seven year-old plant of C. experience of growing it, C. indivisa Mr Williams put on a similar display indivisa vera growing in Castlewellan takes about 20 years to approach the following year (Anon., 1969, Arboretum (County Down, Northern its typical full height in cultivation of 1970). It is likely these specimens did Ireland), in 1904 (Ryan, 1904) 5–6 metres. The tallest specimens not survive for long in cultivation as and again as a supplementary are likely to grow in reliably moist apart from apparently being treated illustration to Gardeners’ Chronicle conditions. as stove plants C. indivisaa resents in 1906 (Ryan, 1906). The suffi x Once mature, one or more additional being pot grown for any length of ‘vera’ (Latin for genuine, real, or growth points can sprout from the time. One plant growing in the open true) was apparently added by Mr base of the trunk. These will start at Tresco Abbey in the Scilly Isles fi rst Burbidge of Trinity College Gardens, to grow into additional trunks as the fl owered in 1895 (Fitzherbert, 1901) Dublin who obtained the seeds from head of the original tree gradually and was apparently fi rst recorded New Zealand and supplied some to weakens and eventually dies. In at Tresco in 1853 (King, 1985). This Lord Annesley at Castlewellan, to time, after several generations of specimen may be part of the same emphasise that they were the true this process, the tree forms clumps batch from which Mr Standish’s plant species (Ryan, 1901). The following of full height trunks as is evident received its award. year a photograph by Mr Fitzherbert in the several venerable plants at of both C. australiss and C. indivisa Castlewellan Arboretum which are growing in proximity to one another just over 100 years old. They include was published (Fitzherbert, 1907) the champion specimen in the thus removing any further confusion British Isles (Fig. 4), which is multi- between the two species. stemmed, and one trunk has fl owered Younger plants have larger leaves at least twice with an interval of 2–3 than mature plants, and when growing years between fl owering (Johnson, in optimal conditions they may be 2008). Trees measured there are even larger than typical, as appears considerably taller, at 7.5 metres, than to be the case with an immature the other one mentioned by Johnson specimen 3.5–4 metres tall at Mount (2008) at Glendurgan (Cornwall, Stewart (Co Down, N Ireland, England) at 3 metres tall. There Fig. 3 A–C). is however a possibly even taller specimen at Mt Stewart, growing in moist shade, though it may be a cluster of plants in close proximity Fig. 2 Young (5–10 year old) plant of with rather thin trunks and small Cordyline indivisa with Jeff Irons at Mt heads, and probably drawn up by the Stewart, Co Down, N Ireland. proximity of a large rhododendron, The various species of Cordyline which is still taller than the Cordyline. were easily confused both in cultivation and by botanists from an early date. In 1859 the German A botanist Eduard von Regel published a description of C. indivisaa in Gartenfl oraa which turned out to be C. australis. Mr Lee of the Vineyard Nursery obtained an Award of Merit from the RHS in 1864 for C. indivisa which was later correctly identifi ed B as C. banksii. Around the turn of the century various periodic notes and illustrations in the Gardeners’ Chroniclee indicated the degree of confusion that still existed amongst the species in cultivation, with a large clump of C. banksiii growing in Torquay (Devon, England) in 1901 C captioned C. indivisaa (Ramsey, 1901) Fig. 3 Immature (10–15 year old) specimen Fig. 4 Mature Cordyline indivisa at but some weeks later it was correctly of Cordyline indivisa with relatively large Castlewellan, Co Down, N Ireland. This leaves at Mt Stewart, Co Down, N Ireland. champion tree is more than 100 years old. identifi ed by Mr S.W. Fitzherbert A, entire plant. B, Leaf measuring about (Ramsey, 1901). A row of mature 2.2 m long and 200 mm at its widest, larger C. australiss at Abbotsbury Gardens than the 1–2 m × 100–150 mm cited by (Dorset, England) was also captioned Moore and Edgar (1970).