Cordyline australis - nature or nurture?

[charlie]

If you live down here you can't help noticing there are a lot of these around and they all seem to look quite different. Mine seen here in January tends to branch and flower early the flower spikes are dark in colour eventually opening white from pinkish buds and it never sets seed.

001 by charliepridham, on Flickr
It had been my intention to take pictures of some of the really ugly examples around my village but the weather has been so crap since I took the above that by the time I did it yesterday someone had put them out of their misery with a chain saw :) However below is a sort of example, much taller this plant seldom flowers but when it does carries large crops of white seed.

004 by charliepridham, on Flickr
Then there is the question of hardiness, below is one that despite being only a couple of hundred yards from mine clearly suffered this winter, while mine didn't notice winter this year

025 by charliepridham, on Flickr
I realize that age will play some part in how they look, and I am now coming to the view that they actually look better not allowed to form tall trunks, the scent seems similar from all and is one of those smells which divides gardeners into those like me who thinks it smells wonderful (especially from a distance) and those that reckon it smells of cat wee and wouldn't dream of allowing one to flower in their garden, but here I am pretty sure its differences in the human sense of smell and not differences in Cordylines.
And I have given up all other cordyline species as a lost cause here!

[DaveP]

I'm pretty sure that it's nature Charlie. From what I've been able to discover there are numerous geographical forms of australis, which are primarily distinguished by leaf breadth, cross section, colour and cold tolerance. Flower spike formation and flower colour appears to vary considerably as well. Broadest leaved variants that show some similarity with C. obtecta are usually found in the north and can be more tender than the narrow leaved forms.

A broad leaved form in a neighbour's front garden has a lax branching habit with arching leaves up to 12 cms wide. Flowering is sparse with very open, untidy, lax racemes carrying translucent pinkish white flowers followed by blue/grey fruits that eventually ripen greyish white. It appeared to suffer slightly during the 2009/10 winter, but made a very rapid recovery. Another nearby Cordyline grew bolt upright for years with stiff erect, narrow leaves that were somewhat shorter than most narrow leaved australis forms. It's overall appearance was very neat and rather pleasing. 6 years ago, it flowered for the first time at around 4m high and has subsequently branched with the growth now resembling most Cordylines.

The only green leaved australis I have is an extremely narrow, almost grass-leaved form with very prominent yellow leaf bases. The leaves are long and arch pleasingly so I anticipate it will develop into a very handsome plant. Other Cordylines which do well here are C. obtecta, 'Festival Grass', 'Renegade', x glauca, stricta and indivisa. I lost some young banksii a few years ago, but am now raising more as well as Cordyline petiolaris.

[David Matzdorf]

The extreme promiscuity of C. australis in generating cvs. of all colours, leaf widths, levels of vigour, etc., suggests that the type sp. is very, very variable and prone to mutate, so I'd conclude that the variability is in the plants more than in the growing conditions.

...the scent seems similar from all and is one of those smells which divides gardeners into those like me who thinks it smells wonderful (especially from a distance) and those that reckon it smells of cat wee and wouldn't dream of allowing one to flower in their garden, but here I am pretty sure its differences in the human sense of smell and not differences in Cordylines.

Not sure. I've had only one Cordyline flower outdoors and it smelled heavily sweet to me, a bit overpowering, but quite pleasant from a distance. I once (many years ago) somehow persuaded its relative Dracaena draco to flower in an office and we had to remove the inflorescence because no one could work - the intense scent was about one third honey and two thirds cat's pee.

I also reckon some C. australis are more feline than others. Part of the variability of a widely-distributed and mutable species.

[tony]

Could it be that they flower most prolifically when under stress, I have noticed that of the six "dead" out of the seven big ones I had in the garden, they all flowered before going into decline and collapsing. I have one left, about 20 foot tall which has only flowered very occasionally. Love the perfume although its very subjective lily like smell, my wife hates it says it smells of cats piss.

[Chrisg]

I also reckon some C. australis are more feline than others.

:lol:, first we had art-deco plants, now feline ones. We need a thread of the best phrases used in plant descriptions.

[Wayne]

I recently placed a solar spotlight under our Cordyline..really dramatic at night. Just need a nice warm evening to enjoy it ;)

Wayne

[David Matzdorf]

Could it be that they flower most prolifically when under stress, I have noticed that of the six "dead" out of the seven big ones I had in the garden, they all flowered before going into decline and collapsing.

Same experience here with C. 'Sundance' after the big freeze in Dec 2010. It's not all that uncommon for plants about to die to have one last bash at producing another generation. And the energy used to do so surely makes it more likely that they won't survive.