The magical thing about this plant is that very often the pinkish purple upper leaves appear to glow with a bright inner light. Even when the lower leaves and pot are hardly visible in deep shadows, those fiery upper leaves are just incandescent.

Despite being such a fine plant, there seems to be no generally accepted English name for it. It's a native to Southeast Asia, south and east through parts of Polynesia into northeastern Australia and a bit into the Indian Ocean, but early on it was introduced into Hawaii, where soon it became one of the best known of Hawaiian plants. Now it's grown in tropical gardens worldwide. Among English names applied to it are Cabbage Palm, Good Luck Plant, Palm Lily, Hawaiian Ti and Ti Plant. It's CORDYLINE FRUTICOSA.

Originally it spread from its homeland because of its edible starchy rhizomes. Also it was regarded as medicinal, and its leaves were used in thatch roofing. But now mostly its dozens of bright-leafed cultivars are planted. I'm guessing that the name of our cultivar is "Firebrand," but after seeing how many similar ones there are, I can't be sure. You might enjoy browsing the International Cordyline Society's "Photo Gallery," accessible in the Main Menu at the left, at http://cordyline.org/.