Ti (plant)

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Cordyline fruticosa

Foliage

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Laxmanniaceae
Genus:	Cordyline
Species:	C. fruticosa

Binomial name

Cordyline fruticosa
(L.) A. Chev.

Cordyline fruticosa (Ti plant, also known as the good luck plant), is an evergreen flowering plant in the family Laxmanniaceae, formerly treated in the family Agavaceae. It is a woody plant growing up to 4 m tall, with leaves 30-60 cm (rarely 75 cm) long and 5-10 cm wide at the top of a woody stem. It produces 40-60 cm long panicles of small scented yellowish to red flowers that mature into red berries. It is native to tropical southeastern Asia, Papua New Guinea, Melanesia, northeastern Australia and across Polynesia to Hawaii. It is present in New Zealand, where it is thought to have been introduced from Polynesia by Māori.^[1]

1 Cultivation and uses
2 Synonymy
3 See also
4 Notes
5 External links

[edit] Cultivation and uses

The Ti plant is most closely associated with Polynesia, its starchy rhizomes, which are very sweet when the plant is mature, were eaten as food or as medicine, and its leaves were used to thatch the roofs of houses, and to wrap and store food.^[2] Ti leaves were also used to make items of clothing including skirts worn in dance performances.^[3]

In ancient Hawaiʻi Ti was thought to have great spiritual power; only high priests and chiefs were able to wear leaves around their necks during certain ritual activities. Ti leaves were also used to make lei, and to outline borders between properties (for which its alternative name: terminalis). To this day some Hawaiians plant Ti near their houses to bring good luck. The leaves are also used for lava sledding. A number of leaves are lashed together and people ride down hills on them.

Ti is a popular ornamental plant, with numerous cultivars available, many of them selected for green or reddish or purple foliage.

[edit] Synonymy

Convallaria fruticosa L. (basionym)
Asparagus terminalis L. nom. illeg.
Cordyline terminalis (L.) Kunth
Cordyline terminalis var. ferra Baker
Dracaena terminalis L. nom. illeg.
Dracaena terminalis Rich.
Terminalis fruticosa (L.) Kuntze

[edit] See also

Okolehao, a liquor made from Ti roots.

[edit] Notes

^ Although it is pronounced the same way, the ti plant is not to be confused with the tea plant, Camellia sinensis.
^ The plant or its roots are referred to in most Polynesian languages as tī. Variants include kī (Hawaiʻian), sī (Tongan), and ʻautī (Tahitian).
^ The Hawaiʻian hula skirt is a dense skirt, an opaque layer of at least 50 green leaves with the bottom (top of the leaves) shaved flat. The Tongan dance dress, the sisi, is an apron of about 20 leaves, worn over a tupenu, and decorated with some yellow or red leaves (see picture at Māʻuluʻulu).