who’s that
They call it a cabbage tree. How dare they! Dendroserislitoralis is a lettuce anyway, not a cabbage at all.
The real cabbage tree ( Cordyline
australis) is our beloved icon which grows from one end of this country to the other.
There is a problem with common names in that they are local and can be confusing. Botanical names can be long and seem esoteric, but at least they are specific and accurate.
Dendroseris litoralis – I refuse to call it the cabbage tree – is a member of the Asteraceae, or sunflower family; cabbages are brassicas of the Brassicaceae family.
The botanical name, when explained, is really not so scary. Dendro means tree, seris means cabbage because the leaves look like cabbage leaves and litoralis means of the sea coast.
This little tree with big leaves comes from, and only from, Robinson Crusoe Island, one of the Juan Fernandez group of islands which are several hundred kilometres from the coast of central Chile. Goats, which were introduced to the island, ate up the delicious dendroseris until, by the 1980s, only three plants remained. Since that time goats have been culled and revegetation has progressed but, unfortunately, this dendroseris is still critically endangered in its natural home.
Incidentally, the island was so named because the book Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, is based on the true event of Alexander Selkirk, a Scot, who spent four years and four months as a castaway on this island. Selkirk is said to have survived, in part, by eating the leaves of the dendroseris.
Dendroseris litoralis is a fun plant to grow in the garden, partly because it looks like an illustration from Dr Seuss: Its gnarly trunk is ringed by leaf scars. This trunk sprouts branches with bunches of large, leathery leaves shaped like tennis rackets.
Compounding its eccentricity are the large summer flowers, just like orange marigolds, which drip from the tree.
Dendroseris is an island plant. This means it doesn’t like to get too hot or too cold. It will only take a couple of degrees of frost at most. However, its large fleshy leaves will wilt in the heat. Warm, humid weather causes fungal infections. In short, this plant likes cool, well-drained soil which does not dry out. It enjoys a good feed.
Alan Trott, in his October column in NZ Gardener, wrote about several varieties of heuchera.
Cleverly, he included their names. I have lost the name of the heuchera in the bottom photograph on the right.
I have had this plant for years and years in the garden at Larnach Castle. Gradually I have bulked it up and spread it around. This quiet carpet of leaves now separates two, contrasting, floriferous displays.
Every few years, I would dig plants up, divide them into separate clusters of leaves on the somewhat woody stems then just poke the bits back into the ground right up to where the leaves sprout from the stem. I would do this on an overcast, cool day or perhaps just before rain. It doesn’t seem to matter if not all the pieces have roots because they all seem to grow. February flowers are pretty in a quiet and dainty way.
The flax plant emerging from amidst the heucheras is the cultivar Phormium
‘Elfin’. This little plant won’t grow too big and troublesome. Such a relief.
It’s hard work digging out or cutting back those flaxes which are prone to gigantism.