Dacrycarpus dacrydioides

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iKahikatea

Mature Kahikatea tree

Conservation status

Least concern (LR/lc)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Pinophyta
Class:	Pinopsida
Order:	Pinales
Family:	Podocarpaceae
Genus:	Dacrycarpus
Species:	D. dacrydioides

Binomial name

Dacrycarpus dacrydioides
(A.Rich.) de Laub.

Dacrycarpus dacrydioides (Kahikatea) is a coniferous tree endemic to New Zealand.

The tree grows to a height of 55 metres with a trunk exceeding one metre diameter, and is buttressed at the base. It is dominant in lowland forest and wetlands throughout the North and South Islands. The leaves are spirally arranged; on young plants, they are awl-shaped, 3-8 mm long, and twisted at the base to lie spread to the sides of the shoot in a flat plane; on mature trees, they are scale-like, 1-3 mm long, and placed all round the shoot. The cones are highly modified, with the cone scales swelling at maturity into an orange to red, fleshy, aril with a single apical seed 3-5 mm diameter. The seeds are dispersed by birds, which eat the fleshy scale and pass the seeds in their droppings. The fleshy aril is edible, and was an important food resource for Māori people.

It is the tallest native tree in New Zealand. Before extensive logging, trees of 60 m height were known, though a specimen 55 m tall in Pirongia Forest Reserve is the tallest surviving.

Until recently the tree was more likely to be referred to by the misleading name "white pine", despite its not being a pine; the Māori name Kahikatea is now more widely used (other Māori names are kaikatea, kahika, katea, kōaka).

Like many other species in the family Podocarpaceae, the classification of Kahikatea has changed over time, having also been placed in the genera Podocarpus and Nageia. Synonyms include P. dacrydioides, D. excelsum, P. thujoides, D. thuioides, D. ferrugineum, N. dacrydioides, N. excelsa, P. excelsus.

[edit] Uses

Since the wood does not impart an odour, and was clean and lightweight, Kahikatea was used to make boxes for the exporting of butter in the period from 1885 right through to 1940. The butter was exported in 56lb slabs, and Kahikatea became less common as the export industry grew.

The orange fruit holding the base of the Kahikatea seed was an important food of early Māori, and were served at feasts in great amounts. Reportedly, the fruit tastes sweet with a slight piney aftertaste. The wood of the Kahikatea was also the favoured wood of early Māori for making bird spears. Soot obtained from burning the heartwood supplied early Māori with a pigment for traditional tattooing (Tā moko)

Kahikatea, along with other trees in privately owned forests, can only be harvested under a permit system and if sustainable harvesting techniques are used.