Portal:New Zealand/Selected article/Week 6, 2006

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The Cabbage tree (Cordyline australis) or ti kouka, is a monocotyledonous tree endemic to New Zealand. It grows up to 15 m tall, at first on a single stem, but dividing into a much-branched crown, each branch forking after producing a flowering stem. The leaves are sword-shaped, 40-90 cm long and 3-7 cm broad at the base, with numerous parallel veins. The flowers are creamy white, each flower small, about 1 cm diameter with six tepals, and produced in a large, dense cluster 50-100 cm long. The fruit is a white berry 5-7 mm diameter.

Because their high carbohydrate content can be made digestible by cooking, they were a valuable food source for at least the first 800 years of the Māori occupation of the country. Radiocarbon dating points to use since about the year 1000. Related trees were probably valuable elsewhere in the South Pacific. Fern root was the only other substantial carbohydrate source.