Cordyline fruticosa

The Hawaiian Ti plant (pronounced as in tea not tie) is a palmlike evergreen shrub with a strong, usually unbranched trunk that can get up to 10' tall. However, most of us know it as a smaller foliage house plant, before much of a trunk has developed. The leaves are 12-30" long, 4-6" wide and may be glossy green, reddish purple, or marked with various combinations of purple, red, yellow or white. The leaves originate in tufts at the top of the woody stems in mature plants, and more or less along the stems in younger house plants. Mature plants produce yellowish or reddish flowers that are sweetly scented, less than a half inch across, and clustered in conspicuous 12" panicles. The fruits are red berries. Ti sometimes grows in clumps by suckering from the enlarged tuber-like rhizomes. A red ti plant cultivar. Many cultivars have been selected for their beautiful foliage.