We’ve all seen them before, many times, so often that we tend to disregard the extraordinary Ti kouka (Cordyline australis). Hailing from the Asparagaceae family, this iconic endemic feature of New Zealand’s landscape was known as ‘cabbage tree’ because like Maori, early settlers and bushmen ate the blanched inner leaves and cores of terminal shoots. They were a little on the bitter side but sufficiently palatable, similar to artichoke.

The name, Cordyline comes from the Greek word, kordyle meaning club which refers to the shape of the underground stem/tap-root, while australis simply means southern. The Cordyline genus contains fifteen species of which six occur in New Zealand, although Cordyline terminalis was an introduction by Maori who brought it from the Pacific Islands as a food source.

• Burstall and Sales 100 Great New Zealand Trees identifies a Ti kouka 12.6 metres tall with 2.4 metre diameter in a grove at Ngatarua Station near Taihape. It is thought to be the same tree described in 1847 by William Colenso. Apparently Maori carved a space in which a man could stand upright in the trunk. It had a door, and tools and baskets were stored in it. Far from the largest, another tree nearby was recorded with a diameter of three metres, and near Invercargill, another of 15.6 metres height was noted. Other specimens have been recorded up to 18 metres
• Maori and early European used Ti kouka for food. The rhizomes and trunks of young trees were harvested in spring before flowering when they yielded the highest carbohydrate content. 
• Ti kouka nutritional analysis identified it as a source of high fructose syrup comparable with sugar beet
• When harvesting, the heads were removed and the trunks left standing. Once felled, the bark and tough outer of the rhizome were removed. The remains were sun-dried then steamed in earth ovens for 24-48 hours to caramelise the starch. Fibre was then removed and what was left was combined with water as a sweet drink, gruel or paste. 
• Early Europeans used the root as a sweetener when sugar was scarce
• Ti kouka was also used to make molasses, and apparently excellent beer as well as less successful spirits which were made from the baked roots 
• Maori infused the leaves as a treatment for dysentery and diarrhoea. Young boiled inner shoots provided infusions for nursing mothers and were administered to children for colic, while leaf-scrapings were used as an unguent for sores, cuts and cracks in the skin.
• Leaves were used by Maori to make thatching, sandals, and baskets. The fibres were strong, and more durable than flax and were useful where exposure to weather, immersion in water, or strength was critical. 
• European settlers and bushmen understood the low flammability of the trunks hollowing them out as chimneys for their huts.
• Heavier flowering occurs approximately every three years and is supposed to herald a hot dry summer
• Seed stores well, and can remain viable in the soil for several years
• Once sown, seed  germinates in two months but can be accelerated with cool, moist stratification for four weeks
• Cordyline australis is ideally grown in open environments. It is tolerant of challenging conditions, thriving on exposed coastal sites, barren hillsides, and alongside swamps. It can withstand exposure, substantial frost, drought, and even fire.