Both Cordyline

Cordyline australis vs Cordyline indivisa

These two are not on this page because a keyword tool suggested them. They are here because our own identification model genuinely mistook one for the other, on real photographs, 5 times. We publish the rate, and then we tell you what actually separates them.

Confused 5x by our model Same genus Cordyline Method published

Side by sidefigs. a and b

Cordyline australis, photographed by Jenny Saito
fig. a Jenny Saito, CC BY 4.0

Cordyline australis

New Zealand cabbage tree
Cordyline indivisa, photographed by Duncan Cunningham
fig. b Duncan Cunningham, CC BY 4.0

Cordyline indivisa

Mountain Cabbage Tree

How often our model gets it wrong measured, not estimated

When the plant was The model said How often
Cordyline indivisa Cordyline australis 5 of 20 (25%)

Measured on 38,299 openly licensed, research-grade photographs. Full method and dataset.

What actually separates themon the record

Family Both Asparagaceae. The family does not separate them.
Genus Both Cordyline. Congeners, which is why this is hard.

What we do not have yet: the diagnostic morphological character that a botanist would key on, from a source we can cite. We are not going to invent one. Until we have it, this page tells you the two are genuinely confusable, how often, and what the taxonomy and the flowering data do and do not settle.

Both recordsfull pages