New Zealand plants

Forest and Bird, Volume 14, Issue 6, 1 May 1983, Page 49

New Zealand plants

By

Sheila Cunningham

Kowhai The kowhai (Sophora microDhylla) is deciduous, and flowers on the bare stems from September to October. The flowers are abundant in nectar and attract tuis and bellbirds. Long seed pods later develop. The tree has a twiggy juvenile stage and is more attractive when older. It grows up to 10m high. The wood is attractive and very durable and is excellent for fence posts. Sophora microphylla grows on the edges of forests and in other open places throughout New Zealand, except in Hawke’s Bay and Poverty Bay, where its place is taken by the larger-leaved Sophora_tetraptera. Tree tutu Tutu (Coriaria arborea) is probably best known as a poisonous plant. Early settlers lost numbers of stock from the eating of this tree, and more than one travelling elephant has perished from reaching out for roadside titbits. The plant’s poison affects the brain, causing vomiting, convulsions, frothing at the mouth, and then death. The Maoris, however, made a strong wine from the shining black berries, but were careful to exclude the poisonous seeds.

It is most often seen as spreading branches growing from ground level, and the

stem is four sided and slightly grooved. It grows up to 9 m high.