Island plants
Cabbage trees,
Dendroseris
litoralis
Robinson Crusoe’s role model, Alexander Selkirk, supplemented
his diet with cabbage tree leaves when he was marooned on the Juan
Fernández Islands in the eighteenth century.
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Goats decimate cabbage trees
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More recently, marauding goats proved to be a much greater threat,
reducing the population to just three surviving cabbage trees by
the 1980s.
Seeds collected from cabbage trees were sent to the Millennium
Seed Bank at Wakehurst Place. Seeds survive for longer when stored
in a cold dry seed bank.
Ten healthy seedlings were raised in the nursery in 2000. One
of these plants flowered and produced seed in 2004.
Cuttings and air-layers from the cabbage trees are being grown
on at Kew to form part of a conservation-focussed
display in one of the public glasshouses.
Continue the tour Back up to: island plants index
Carry
on to: cáfe marron
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