Kingdom Plantae Clade Monocots Family Asparagaceae Rank Species | Clade Angiosperms Order Asparagales Subfamily Lomandroideae | |
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Similar Cordyline petiolaris, Cordyline stricta, Cordyline congesta, Cordyline indivisa, Cordyline banksii | ||
Cordyline rubra, known as the Palm Lily is an evergreen Australian plant. It grows as a shrub to around 4 metres (13 ft) tall. Found in warm rainforest and moist eucalyptus forest. The range of natural distribution is from Lismore to near Bundaberg, Queensland.
Cordyline rubra was first described by the German botanists Christoph Friedrich Otto and Albert Gottfried Dietrich in 1848. The species name is from the Latin ruber "red".
Cordyline rubra is mainly identified by the leaf stems, which grow from 5 to 20 cm (2–8 in) long. They are flat or somewhat concave in shape. The leaves 15 to 50 cm (6–20 in) long, and 3 to 5.5 cm (1.4–2.2 in) wide, narrow elliptic in shape. Flowering occurs from summer, being lilac in colour. The fruit is a bright red berry, 10 mm (0.4 in) in diameter.They grow on panicles 10 to 40 cm (4–16 in) long.
This species propagates easily from seeds or stem cuttings. Cordyline rubra is not as widely seen in cultivation as C. australis, however it is also well suited to gardens with moist soils in semi shade. It is a resilient plant and can tolerate neglect. Also suited as an indoor pot plant. Occasionally it hybridizes with Cordyline petiolaris in the wild.
