Cabbage Tree

Cordyline australis, the cabbage tree or, in Māori, tī or tī kōuka, is a widely branched monocot tree found only in New Zealand, with a stout trunk and sword-like leaves clustered at the tips of its branches. It is common from the far north of the North Island to the south of the South Island. Māori used it as a food, especially in the South Island, where they cultivated it where other crops would not grow, and it gave a durable fibre for textiles. In traditional rongoā, or Māori medicine, various parts were boiled into a drink or pounded into a paste. The kōata, the growing tip, was eaten raw as a blood tonic or cleanser. Leaf juice was used for cuts, cracks and sores, a leaf infusion for diarrhoea, and the young shoot was eaten by nursing mothers and given to children for colic. Settlers made liquor from its rhizomes in the 1850s.