What is this thing? Is it even a Tree? ....ID?

just.wing.it

Deadwood Head
Messages
12,356
Reaction score
18,105
Location
The Communist State of Maryland
USDA Zone
6B
Had it for 6+ years as an indoor plant....predating my bonsai life....
It was in a pot with no drainage and the roots rotted off, actually part way up the trunk became hollow and dead.
I cut it back and replanted it in 2015.
It's alive and grew a ton of roots...but almost never grew above....very very very slowly....

This past winter I decided to separate it from its planting and twist it up.
Repotting and wire happened about a month apart in January-Feb....
Just moved it outside with my other tropicals....
Pink and green leaves....palm like....I dunno.
20200518_183906.jpg20200518_183928.jpg20200518_183951.jpg
 
Cordyline australis?

It is a monocot tree endemic to New Zealand. You can't turn around in Southern California without tripping over them :) There are about a billion different cultivars - some quite colorful and flashy!

pl2000026278_card4_lg.jpg
 
Last edited:
Is the second picture the same species? Didn't think they could make a trunk like that, never seen more than a thin rope trunk as a houseplant
Yeah. They grow very slowly so you'd probably never see bark like that on a houseplant in your life time.
But the first pic is a cultivar of the second pic.
Third pic is a different beast. Just threw that in because it's awesome.
 
Yeah. They grow very slowly so you'd probably never see bark like that on a houseplant in your life time.
But the first pic is a cultivar of the second pic.
Third pic is a different beast. Just threw that in because it's awesome.
Dracaena cinnabari, the Socotra Dragon tree or Dragon Blood tree. Just one more feature drawing visitors to Yemen.
 
I have had a few of the pink ones in the yard for about 10 years or so. One of them has been fighting an overgrown schefflera for sunlight and is probably 6 feet tall with some crazy movement. Can you trunk chop these or do they die like palms do?
 
I have had a few of the pink ones in the yard for about 10 years or so. One of them has been fighting an overgrown schefflera for sunlight and is probably 6 feet tall with some crazy movement. Can you trunk chop these or do they die like palms do?
You can trunk chop them. And the tops will root pretty easily.
 
I have had a few of the pink ones in the yard for about 10 years or so. One of them has been fighting an overgrown schefflera for sunlight and is probably 6 feet tall with some crazy movement. Can you trunk chop these or do they die like palms do?
You can trunk chop them. And the tops will root pretty easily.
I actually did chop this one a year or 2 ago to see if it would divide into 2....but it just came back as one.
 
Back
Top Bottom