NEW ZEALAND TREES The POHUTUKAWA

Korero (AEWS), Volume 2, Issue 18, 11 September 1944, Page 13

NEW ZEALAND TREES The POHUTUKAWA

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The glory of the Auckland coast, at least in midsummer, is the pohutukawa or Christmas tree. During December and January its masses of crimson flowers form a flaming belt along the shore. Like its relative, the rata, it is the brush-like stamens that give colour to the flower, the petals being small and inconspicuous. Although the home of the pohutukawa is the Auckland Province, it grows well when transplanted to more southern localities. It is, for instance, a favourite ornamental tree in Wellington. Old pohutukawa trees grow to an immense size. One at Te Araroa, near the East Cape, consists of twenty trunks, each large enough for an independent tree. Some of these large trees were held as objects of special veneration by the Maoris. One of the most famous is the tree named Karewa at Kawhia, the very tree, according to the Maoris, to

which the Tainui canoe was moored six hundred years ago. This massive plant must have been a giant at that time with long branches stretching out over the water ; for it is narrated that at the end of its journey the Tainui’s anchor rope was fastened to one of its branches. Another famous pohutukawa, now, it is said, no longer existing, was the one overhanging the sea at Cape Reinga. It was along one of the branches of this tree that the spirits of the departed entered the nether regions. By Europeans the pohutukawa is one of the favourite trees used in public gardens and for street planting. The wood is reddish, excessively dense, and of great strength ; but the tortuous habit of growth renders it largely unsuitable for planks. It has, however, been used extensively for ship timbers.