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.
As of March 2015, the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families accepts 24 species:
She's like a swallow that flies so high
She's like the river that never runs dry
She's like the sunshine on the lee shore
She loves her love and love is no more
It's out in the meadow this fair maid did go
Picking the lovely primrose
The more she plucked the more she pulled
Until she's got her apron full
She climbed on yonder hill above
To give a rose unto her love
She gave him one, she gave him three
She gave her heart for company
And as they sat on yonder hill
His heart grew hard, so harder still
He has two hearts instead of one
She says, young man what have you done
How foolish, foolish you must be
To think I loved no one but thee
This world's not made for one alone