Ti Plant

Description:

I'm not sure which cultivar this one is.

Habitat:

Tropical dry forest in NW Costa Rica half way through the wet season.

Notes:

The species was spread from its native range throughout Polynesia as a cultivated plant. Its starchy rhizomes, which are very sweet when the plant is mature, were eaten as food or as medicine, and its leaves were used to thatch the roofs of houses, and to wrap and store food. The plant or its roots are referred to in most Polynesian languages as tī. Māori ranked the sweetness of the plant above the other Cordyline species native to New Zealand.[4] Leaves were also used to make items of clothing including skirts worn in dance performances. The Hawaiian hula skirt is a dense skirt with an opaque layer of at least 50 green leaves and the bottom (top of the leaves) shaved flat. The Tongan dance dress, the sisi, is an apron of about 20 leaves, worn over a tupenu, and decorated with some yellow or red leaves[5] (see picture at Māʻuluʻulu). In ancient Hawaiʻi the plant was thought to have great spiritual power; only kahuna (high priests) and aliʻi (chiefs) were able to wear leaves around their necks during certain ritual activities. Tī leaves were also used to make lei, and to outline borders between properties it was also planted at the corners of the home to keep ghosts from entering the home or property (for which its alternative name: terminalis). To this day some Hawaiians plant tī near their houses to bring good luck. The leaves are also used for lava sledding. A number of leaves are lashed together and people ride down hills on them. The roots of the tī plant were used as a glossy covering on surfboards in Hawaii in the early 1900s. Ti is a popular ornamental plant, with numerous cultivars available, many of them selected for green or reddish or purple foliage. In Hawaii, tī rhizomes are fermented and distilled to make okolehao, a liquor.