cabbage tree

English

Noun

cabbage tree (plural cabbage trees)

1. Cordyline australis, a hardy, widely branched monocot tree endemic to New Zealand, a traditional source of food and fiber.

   Synonym: cabbage palm

2. Any of several other similar trees of the genus Cordyline.
3. The worm bark tree, Andira inermis.
   • 1850, M. A. Burnett, Plantae Utiliores; Or, Illustrations of Useful Plants, Employed in the Arts and Medicine:

     Andira inermis. - Smooth bastard cabbage-tree. […] The Smooth Geoffroys, Andira Inermis, or Bastard Cabbage-tree, universally known in the West Indies by the name of the Work Bark-tree, […] The bark of the cabbage tree has a disagreeable, sweet, mucilaginous taste, and a slight but disagreeable odour.