What is "cordyline"

Cordyline \Cordyline\ n. a genus of Asiatic and Pacific trees or shrubs remarkable for the fact that fragments of the trunk will regrow to form whole plants.

Syn: genus Cordyline.

n. Any member of the genus (taxlink Cordyline genus) of woody monocotyledonous flowering plants, native to the western Pacific Ocean region.

Cordyline is a genus of about 15 species of woody monocotyledonous flowering plants in family Asparagaceae, subfamily Lomandroideae. The subfamily has previously been treated as a separate family Laxmanniaceae, or Lomandraceae. Other authors have placed the genus in the Agavaceae (now Agavoideae). Cordyline is native to the western Pacific Ocean region, from New Zealand, eastern Australia, southeastern Asia, Polynesia and Hawaii, with one species found in western South America.

The name Cordyline comes from the Greek word kordyle, meaning "club," a reference to the enlarged underground stems or rhizomes.