Torquay Palm

Torquay Palm This print is based on a drawing of a tree in the suburbs of Pinner, Middlesex, U.K. From studying this particular species I now know that the local flora of Pinner includes Cordyline Australis, or the New Zealand Cabbage Tree which has become known as a Torquay Palm in the South of England. According to a posting on 'New Zealand Species Overseas' in The Encyclopedia of New Zealand website(http://www.teara.govt.nz) 'New Zealand flaxes, cabbage trees, and tree ferns are particularly in vogue in Britain, perhaps because they seem so exotic there. Cabbage trees are so much a part of the landscape in the south of England that they have become known as Torquay palms, and are used in tourist posters to promote Cornwall as the English Riviera.'¹ So I have found that the apparently exotic has been appropriated from the other side of the world for residents of a North London suburb. (¹ http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/new-zealand-species-overseas/page-2 )