cordyline australis......NZ Cabbage Tree.

The cabbage tree was, they said,
dead. There was nothing they
or anyone could do
now or any day -
how sorry they
were, and sad.

But the cabbage tree heard them -
they never noticed
it shaking its head:
it shook so hard
stars were said to have spread
from where the cabbage tree stood:
A blossoming, new constellation across that night sky south.

Someone said just
yesterday,
some fires
you can't put out.

Sam Hunt's poem, Old Flames, was probably inspired by "Sudden Decline", the term used over the past several decades when thousands of cabbage trees have died. Identified as a "tree lily", Cordyline australis can be traced back more than 15 million years when tropical plants were growing in New Zealand and other islands. As temperatures cooled, many of the plants died off, but Cordyline species survived. Cabbage trees settled on open lands in low valleys. As people arrived, the trees were valued and cultivated for their beauty and strength, nutritional value and the long, flax-like leaves which could be weaved into ropes or baskets. Birds, like wood pigeon, bell birds and fan tails, nest in cabbage trees and nine species of native insects are found only on Cordyline plants. Luckily for us the decline has abated, with a lot more people are replanting these beautiful trees. I love them for their form, and the beautifully fragrant flowers which are around at the moment.