🚀 go-pugleaf

Alan Brown (alan@papaioea.manawatu.gen.nz) wrote:

: Funnily enough, there are more cultivated varieties of Cordyline australis
: in the UK than there are here. 

There is an excellent clump of them right outside the Blackfriars tube in 
the City of London.  Of all places.

Anyone notice how on garden programs on radio and telly, Cordyline 
australis is always 'from Australia'.  This includes Radio 4's 
'Gardener's Question Time' where there is even a spot highlighting 
horticultural Latin. Sheesh.

And the entire Metrosideros genus gets referred to as the 'NZ Christmas 
Tree', or occasionally just M. robusta (the northern rata) - instead of 
M. excelsa (pohutakawa).  We also publish a book 'Plants and their Names' 
which gives the whole of the Metrosideros genus the name 'rata'.  I've 
been away too long - is this right?  I thought there were only two ratas 
- M. robusta (northern) and M. umbellata (southern).  Not that I could 
tell the difference between any of them if I were to stumble across a 
bunch in some unlikely location outside a tube stop...  ;-)   

Kaylene
murdochk@oup.co.uk