Species
+

Cordyline fruticosa (L.) A.Chev.

Broad-leaved Palm Lily, Good Luck Plant, Pacific Island Cabbage Tree, Palm Lily

Climate known 40 photographs Tropical foliage plant
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Cordyline fruticosa is an evergreen flowering plant in the family Asparagaceae. It is known by a wide variety of common names, including ti plant, palm lily, and cabbage palm.

Text from Wikipedia, “Cordyline fruticosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Cordyline

Cordyline is a genus of about 24 species of woody monocotyledonous flowering plants in family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae. The subfamily has previously been treated as a separate family Laxmanniaceae, or Lomandraceae. Other authors have placed the genus in the Agavaceae. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Cordyline”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Asparagaceae
Described by
(L.) A.Chev.
Native to
Bismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is. +8
Wild records
223 in range· 201 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 24 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
2364mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Mar 311 mm (CHELSA)
Light
25–39DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Cordyline, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred. Habitat rain 2364 mm a year, wettest March at 311 mm, driest July at 114 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 39 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 20.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Aletris chinensis Lam.; Asparagus terminalis L.; Calodracon heliconiifolia (Otto & A.Dietr.) Planch.; Calodracon jacquinii (Kunth) Planch.; Calodracon nobilis Planch. and 45 more.

Cultivation

Grouped as a tropical foliage plant by the genus Cordyline, which is reliably one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a sharp rainy season, November to May at the habitat (not shifted); the temperature curve is flat (3.2 °C of range), so no growing season is inferred.

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a sharp season: 70% of the year's rain (1738 mm of 2364 mm) falls in November to May. The temperature curve is flat, 3.2 °C between the warmest and coldest month, so the growing-season rule does not infer a growing season from it. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere, within 10° of the equator; with no thermal season there there is no season to reverse, so they are not shifted for a collection elsewhere.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 2364 mm a year, wettest March at 311 mm, driest July at 114 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

2364 mm a year at the habitat, 1738 mm of it November to May. Wettest month March at 311 mm, driest July at 114 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1301 mm to 4202 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 39 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 25 to 39 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 20, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 20.4 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 20.4 °C, the absolute minimum 17.2 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 20.9 °C in July (across the envelope cells 10.6 °C to 25.1 °C), warmest day 27.6 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 20.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a tropical foliage plant, 12 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 65 to 68% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 21 °C in Jul to 24 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 2364 mm of rain a year, most in Mar. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 188 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 17.2 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)17.2° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 25–39RH 65–68 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 188 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 23–2928 / 23–2927 / 23–2927 / 23–2825 / 21–2825 / 19–2824 / 19–2824 / 20–2825 / 21–2826 / 23–2827 / 23–2927 / 23–29
Night °C24 / 17–2624 / 17–2623 / 16–2623 / 16–2622 / 14–2622 / 11–2521 / 11–2521 / 11–2521 / 13–2522 / 15–2523 / 16–2623 / 17–26
Rain mm289 / 135–438294 / 181–438311 / 138–459253 / 125–426184 / 88–360135 / 54–335114 / 37–373115 / 36–345117 / 35–333145 / 50–347182 / 100–346225 / 146–385
DLI36 / 30–4235 / 29–3833 / 30–3731 / 27–3427 / 22–3225 / 20–3026 / 22–3130 / 27–3434 / 31–3838 / 32–4239 / 31–4239 / 30–43
RH %67 / 62–7268 / 62–7268 / 61–7267 / 61–7266 / 59–7266 / 58–7265 / 56–7265 / 55–7165 / 57–7165 / 58–7166 / 60–7167 / 61–71

Each figure is the median across the 188 grid cells holding the 213 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1914:6506 (-5.725, 145.325). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 17.2 °C, 1st-percentile night 20.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.3 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 188 distinct grid cells holding the 213 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1914:6506 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -5.50_145.625, lapse-corrected -142 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 369 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeBismarck Archipelago, New Guinea, Solomon Is., Queensland, Fiji, Santa Cruz Is., Vanuatu, Wallis-Futuna Is., Caroline Is., Marianas, Marshall Is.· introduced: Gulf of Guinea Is., Comoros, Hainan, China Southeast, Assam, India, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Jawa, Lesser Sunda Is., Malaya, Kermadec Is., New Zealand North, Gilbert Is., Nauru, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Is., Easter Is., Line Is., Marquesas, Pitcairn Is., Society Is., Tuamotu, Tubuai Is., Wake I., Hawaii, Mexico Central, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Panama, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Trinidad-Tobago, Windward Is., Bolivia, Ecuador
Kew's description“shrub or tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-6.073, 145.394 · in the densest population, 72 records (32% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 223 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 201 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 8 km away. 1322 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 10 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 223 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Cordyline fruticosaCordyline fruticosaCordyline fruticosaCordyline fruticosaCordyline fruticosaCordyline fruticosaCordyline fruticosaCordyline fruticosa

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Nicholas Griffith, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Tyler Bishop, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Rosario Douglas, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Diogo Luiz, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Cordyline fruticosa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Steroidal saponins from the leaves of Cordyline fruticosa (L.) A. Chev. and their cytotoxic and antimicrobial activity
Romuald Tématio Fouedjou, Rémy Bertrand Teponno, Luana Quassinti, Massimo Bramucci (2013) · Phytochemistry Letters
Extraction, preparation and application of pigments from Cordyline fruticosa and Hylocereus polyrhizus as sensitizers for dye-sensitized solar cells
Mahmoud A.M. Al-Alwani, Norasikin Ahmad Ludin, Abu Bakar Mohamad, Abdul Amir H. Kadhum (2017) · Spectrochimica Acta Part A Molecular and Biomolecular Spectroscopy
Antibacterial activity of Cordyline fruticosa leaf extracts and its endophytic fungi extracts
Elfita Elfita, Mardiyanto Mardiyanto, Fitrya Fitrya, Juwita Eka Larasati (2019) · Biodiversitas Journal of Biological Diversity
A new species of Colletotrichum from Cordyline fruticosa and Eugenia javanica causing anthracnose disease
Sittisack Phoulivong, Lei Cai, Noireung Parinn, Hang Chen (2011) · Mycotaxon
Optimization of dye extraction from Cordyline fruticosa via response surface methodology to produce a natural sensitizer for dye-sensitized solar cells
Mahmoud A.M. Al-Alwani, Norasikin Ahmad Ludin, Abu Bakar Mohamad, Abdul Amir H. Kadhum (2016) · Results in Physics
Anti-diarrheal activity and brine shrimp lethality bioassay of methanolic extract of Cordyline fruticosa (L.) A. Chev. leaves
Sharmin Naher, Md. Abdullah Aziz, Mst. Irin Akter, S. M. Mushiur Rahman (2019) · Clinical Phytoscience
Primary and secondary thickening in the stem of Cordyline fruticosa (Agavaceae)
Marina B. Cattai, Nanuza Luíza de Menezes (2010) · Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências
Antioxidant Activities and Chemical Constituents of Extracts from Cordyline fruticosa (L.) A. Chev. (Agavaceae) and Eriobotrya japonica (Thunb) Lindl, (Rosaceae)
Léon Azefack Tapondjou, Romuald Tématio Fouedjou, Elvine Pami Nguelefack, Beaudelaire Kemvoufo Ponou (2016) · Pharmacologia
An assemblage of closteroviruses infects Hawaiian ti (Cordyline fruticosa L.)
Michael J. Melzer, D. M. Sether, Wayne B. Borth, Edwin F. Mersino (2010) · Virus Genes

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Cordyline 1 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 141 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.