cabbage tree

American  

noun

1. any tropical tree or treelike plant having leaves or edible shoots suggestive of cabbage.

2. an Australian palm tree of the genus Livistona, especially L. australis.

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cabbage tree British  

noun

1. Also called: ti.  a tree, Cordyline australis, of New Zealand having a tall branchless trunk and a palmlike top

2. any of several other similar trees of the genus Cordyline

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Etymology

Origin of cabbage tree

First recorded in 1715–25

Example Sentences

As the helicopter darted through a small hole in the low-lying clouds, we were greeted by a riot of green, the dense beech forests punctuated with lighter-colored cabbage tree palms.

From Washington Post • Jan. 8, 2015

There is a cabbage tree next to his house.

From Time Magazine Archive

We found also one cabbage tree, which we cut down for the cabbages.

From A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 13 by Kerr, Robert

Dracænopsis Australis.—Ti or cabbage tree of New Zealand.

From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by Saunders, William

Ball, though an inestimable acquisition to our colony, produces little else than the mountain cabbage tree.

From A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany-Bay by Tench, Watkin