Cordiline (Cordiline) is a genus of perennial tropical and subtropical trees , shrubs , subshrubs of the asparagus family (Asparagaceae). Most of the species are used in floriculture as decorative leafy indoor and greenhouse plants.
- Family: Asparagus.
- Homeland: Southeast Asia, Oceania, Australia.
- Rhizome: creeping with white knotted roots.
- Stem: straight branched trunk.
- Leaves: petiolate linear or lanceolate.
- Fruit: berry.
- Reproductive ability: propagated by cuttings, air layering.
- Illumination: bright light with protection from direct sun.
- Watering: moderate, without overdrying and waterlogging.
- Content temperature: heat-loving indoor and greenhouse plant.
- Duration of flowering: practically does not bloom indoors.
Description of the cordilin flower
Under natural conditions, cordilins are mainly large trees, the height of some of them can reach 15-20 m. Solid, slightly branching, straight trunks are covered with petiolate leaves of a lanceolate, linear or xiphoid shape. Old leaves fall off over time, exposing the trunk, and only at its top a dense crown remains, so that the plant begins to resemble a palm tree in appearance.
Cordilina flower in the photo
The color of the leaves of cordilina is mostly green, there are also variegated varieties, in which the leaf plates can be red, pink or decorated with multi-colored spots and stripes.
Cordilina flowers look tubular, because they have a perianth fused at the base into a tube. They are white or pink, mostly bisexual, collected in racemes, which in turn form large, in some varieties up to 2 m long, paniculate inflorescences located in the axils of the leaves. They do not bloom at the same time, a separate cordilina flower remains open for 5-8 days, the life of the entire inflorescence is up to 30 days. In nature, plants are pollinated by insects. The fruits ripen within 4-5 months, they are berries that dry out as they ripen, with a three-celled ovary, each nest of which contains 6-15 seeds.
One of the distinguishing features of the culture can be considered a creeping, fleshy, knotty rhizome, which forms many root shoots with young sprouts. Such shoots are easily separated from the mother plant and can later be used for reproduction. The structure of the rhizome with cone-like swellings also determined the name of the genus, cordilina, which comes from the word “cordylle”, which in Greek means “cone, knot”.
The genus includes 15 species. Their distribution range covers the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia, from the Eastern Himalayas and India to China, then the islands of Polynesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, northeast Australia. A few individual representatives are found in Madagascar and the Mascarene Islands, and one species, C. dracaenoides , grows in Brazil.
The botanical classification of the genus is rather complicated. At one time, it and the close genus dracaena were attributed to the agave family, then they were separated into a separate family of dracaena . According to modern ideas, both plants are transferred to a large family of asparagus.
Cordilines have long been widely used in culture. In their homeland, in New Zealand and Australia, young leaves are eaten, sugar is obtained from rhizomes, some varieties are used in folk medicine. Finally, from the leaves, the dry mass of which contains up to 40% fiber, they make ropes, weave mats and rugs, and even sew clothes. As for the rest of the world, and in particular our country, most species are grown in rooms and greenhouses as decorative leafy tub crops. In room conditions, even large trees in nature have thin trunks, reaching a height of up to 150 cm, grow slowly and, if they are provided with appropriate care, live for a very long time. Often formed in the form of false palms.
At home, cordilins are sometimes confused with representatives of a close genus, dracaena. Their main difference is a different number of seeds in fruits, cordilins can have up to 20 of them, dracaenas always have one, but since both plants practically do not bloom in the rooms, such a feature has no practical significance. They are distinguished mainly by the appearance of the roots, straight, smooth, orange on the cut in dracaena and white, knotty in cordylin, in addition, the latter have petiolate leaves with a convex central and pinnately located lateral veins, while in dracaena the leaves wrap around trunks and differ in parallel venation.
Decorative types of cordilin flower and varieties
Below are descriptions of the most common cordilin species in room culture with a photo and a list of popular varieties.
Cordilina apical with photo
Cordilina apical or border (C. terminalis) , also called cordilina shrub or fruticose (C. fructicosa) – one of the most common species found throughout the habitat from India to Australia. In the tropics, it is often cultivated in gardens, as well as grown in greenhouses and indoors, and is widely used in indoor floriculture.
Apical cordilina (photo) is a relatively low (up to 3 m) tree or shrub with thin, up to 1.5 cm in diameter, smooth, slightly branched trunks, with traces of fallen leaves. The leaves themselves are oblong or oblong-ovate, close at the top of the trunk, up to 80 cm long, up to 10 cm wide, with a grooved petiole 10-15 cm in size. “. Leaf blades can be green, purplish-red or variegated, have a prominent central vein, especially clearly visible on the underside. The flowers are small, up to 10 mm in diameter, white, reddish or purple, sessile or with short pedicels, collected in a loose petiolate paniculate inflorescence up to 30 cm in diameter, formed in the axils of the leaves.
Cordilina fruticose
Cordilina fruticosa in the open air quickly takes on the appearance of a palm tree with a bunch of leaves at the top, but in room conditions it is usually leafy to the very base and is characterized by slow growth, while maintaining a compact size for a long time. It practically does not bloom indoors, it is valued as an ornamental leafy plant. A heat-loving species, the temperature of the content all year round should be at least 18-20 ° C.
It has many varieties and garden forms, characterized by a variety of leaf colors.
Of the variegated varieties, the most famous are:
Tricolor, with leaves decorated with multi-colored stripes, yellow, brown or reddish;
Red edge, with small narrow dark green leaves with a creamy center and a raspberry stripe along the edges;
Augusta, whose dark green leaves are covered with crimson lines;
Kiwi, green leaf plates with a raspberry border and longitudinal yellow stripes;
Snow, with white strokes;
Lord Roberts – with leaves covered with white and pink lines.
There are a number of monophonic cultivars:
Purple compacta – miniature cordilina with a strong stem and a thick hat of purple-green leaves;
Black magic, broad shiny leaves of which are dark green at first, and with age acquire an intense blue-burgundy hue;
Ginga dyed reddish brown;
Casanova, with bronze-violet leaves wavy along the edge;
Purpurea, reddish-purple.
Above are photos of Cordilina Kiwi, Red Edge and some other varieties.
Cordilina straight
Cordilina straight or compressed (C. stricta) , an Australian subtropical species that grows in shrubs and forest thickets in the east of the continent. It is a tree up to 3 m high with thin, strongly branched trunks from above and closely spaced at the end of the trunk lanceolate or linear leaves from 30 to 60 cm long, dark green, leathery, pointed at the ends, with a narrowed base and a serrated or rough edge. As with the previous species, the lower part of the trunks is usually covered with scars from fallen old leaves. The flowers are lilac, small, up to 1 cm in size, on short pedicels, collected in an erect or drooping panicle, formed on the tops of the shoots or in the axils of the leaves. Belongs to the group of false palms.
It is cultivated in cool rooms as a tub plant, in the summer it can be exhibited in the garden, in subtropical regions it is grown in open ground. There is an ornamental garden form Discolor with bronze-purple leaves.
Cordilina southern or Australian
Cordilina southern or Australian (C. australis) is an unpretentious species, in nature it is a huge, up to 15-20 m, tree with a trunk thickened in the lower part and a bunch of long (up to 1 m) and narrow (from 3 to 7 cm) sessile sword-shaped dark green leaves. When young, it does not have pronounced trunks. The flowers are white, fragrant, about 1 cm in diameter, collected in paniculate inflorescences, reaching a length of 1 m.
Despite its name, cordilina australis is endemic to New Zealand, where it grows in forest edges, open wet plains, and rocky areas. At home, it is of economic importance, ropes are made from trunks and roots, leaves are used to make fabrics, as well as various wickerwork and brushes. Young foliage contains a lot of carbohydrates, in places of its natural growth, the culture has long been an important source of nutrition for the local population.
Outwardly, an adult plant resembles a palm tree, therefore it is often mistakenly called the “Manx palm tree”, “Cornish palm tree”. Another common name, “cabbage tree”, was given to the culture by James Cook, apparently for its nutritional value, since at that time its leaves made up a significant part of the diet of the local population.
Due to its unpretentiousness and cold resistance, the species is widely grown in Europe and the USA as an ornamental tree and houseplant. Cordilina southern feels great in greenhouses and winter gardens, tolerates room conditions well. In subtropical climates, it can be cultivated in the garden. Indoors it grows up to 1-3 m and almost never blooms. Requires cold wintering (3-5 ° C), summer can be spent outdoors.
The plant appeared in the gardens and greenhouses of Europe in 1860, and immediately began work on the creation of numerous cultivars, characterized by a bright decorative color of the leaves.
The first appeared in France and England in 1870. It was called C. Lentiginosa and had leaf plates covered with numerous red-brown dots.
The varieties still grown to this day also belong to the ancient varieties:
C. veitchii (1871), streaked with bright crimson.
C. Atrosanguinea (1882), with bronze-red leaves
Purple-colored C. atropurpurea (1886) and C. purpurea (1890).
Red Star cordilina is currently popular with plain red-brown, almost chocolate leaves.
Among modern variegated varieties, we note:
Sundance, green with red stripes;
Torbay Diler, green with cream stripes;
Electric Pink, intense pink with yellow and red stripes.
Cordilina undivided
Cordilina undivided (C. innodivisa) also comes from New Zealand, where it lives in the forests of the mountain belt at an altitude of up to 1600 m above sea level. This species in greenhouses grows up to three, and in nature – up to ten meters. A thin, unbranched trunk is very strong, and the length of wide (13-15 cm) hard sessile leaves can reach up to one and a half meters. The leaves are belt-shaped, pointed at the ends and narrowed towards the base, light green above, with a bluish tint below, with orange or red midribs, often decorated with a reddish border. There are varieties with a bronze-yellow color of the leaf plates. The flowers are white or reddish, collected in a dense branched drooping paniculate inflorescence, apical or axillary.
This cordyline is considered one of the most beautiful trees in New Zealand. It is used to decorate large cool rooms, it is successfully grown in open ground in areas with a subtropical climate.
Cordilina Banksa
Cordyline Banks (Cordyline banksii) grows off the coast of New Zealand. Its thin, straight or forked-branched trunk up to 3 m high is crowned with a dense bunch of upward directed leaves, narrow-lanceolate (up to 8 cm wide), pointed, gradually tapering at the base into a grooved petiole 15-30 cm long. The size of the leaves can reach 1.5 m, the color is green with embossed veins, grayish below. White fragrant flowers are collected in a large, up to 1-1.5 m, paniculate inflorescence. In culture, it is grown in winter gardens and cool greenhouses; in summer, a tub with a tree can be taken out into the garden.
Cordilina red
Cordilina red (C. rubra) – Australian species with unbranched strong shoots 0.6 – 2.5 cm thick, growing in natural conditions up to 3-4 m, in greenhouses and rooms up to 1.5 m. Leathery lanceolate leaves of dark green with a reddish tinge of color are distinctly visible veins and grooved petioles up to 15 cm long. The size of the leaves is 30 – 50 cm long and 3 – 4.5 cm wide. Lilac flowers with short pedicels are collected in axillary branched paniculate inflorescence. Cultivated similarly to the previous species. Varieties with white or red stripes have been created.
Undersized cordilina species
There are several undersized species that are also very decorative and can be successfully used in indoor floriculture. Among them:
Cordilina Haaga (C. haageana) is a heat-loving shrub that grows only up to 60-80 cm, with petiolate, crescent-shaped curved leaves and dark green color. Petioles with deep grooves are about 10 cm long, the leaves themselves are 10-20 cm long, the latter are pointed at the ends and covered with clearly visible veins. The flowers are light purple, with short pedicels, collected in axillary panicles.
Cordilina cannifolia (C. cannifolia) also comes from Australia, its narrow petiolate leaves grow up to 15 cm long, painted in light green.
Cordilina small (C. pumilio) grows up to 1 m, is distinguished by dark green leaves and an unusual, white-blue color of flowers.
Sometimes in stores you can find a culture called “cordilina mix”. This usually means that a batch of various cultivars was purchased from the manufacturer, to which the purchased seedling belongs.