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What is the English name for kahikatea?
kahikatea in British English (ˌkaɪkəˈtɪə ) a tall New Zealand coniferous tree, Podocarpus dacrydioides, valued for its timber and resin. Also called: white pine. Collins English Dictionary.
What does the word kahikatea mean?
: a New Zealand evergreen tree (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides synonym Podocarpus dacrydioides) valued for its light soft easily worked wood, its resin, and the sweet edible aril surrounding its seed. — called also white pine.
Is kahikatea a pine tree?
Stand of kahikatea (Podocarpus dacrydioides). This pine was formerly the most beautiful tree of lowland swampy forests throughout the country; but the stopbanking of rivers and the draining and conversion of swamps to pastures have caused the forests of kahikatea largely to disappear except on the West Coast.
How do you identify kahikatea?
Most of the year, kahikatea does not bear recognizable reproductive structures, and in its native forest it is commonly so tall that foliage characters are of little use in identification. The bark characters and tree form are thus the principal aid in field identification.
Is kahikatea native to New Zealand?
Kahikatea is a native softwood, favoured for amenity and wetland restoration. It is found throughout New Zealand, tolerates cold and grows to altitudes of 600-700 m but is most commonly found in wet lowland forests. It once grew widely in North Island swamps and river flats, until these were cleared for farmland.
What does a kahikatea look like?
The leaves, similar to some other podocarps, look almost scale like as opposed to broad, flat leaves. They look and feel similar to Rimu, cedar, or cypress leaves. The scale like leaves of the mature trees are short, at 1 – 2 mm long. The twisted trunk and gray, flaky bark.
What does the kahikatea tree look like?
Which wood burns hottest NZ?
HOT AND LONG IS BEST According to woodfire makers Firenzo, the longest hotter burning wood in Aotearoa-NZ is gorse, however it’s also hard to come by making it a lot less cost effective. Wattle, macrocarpa, gum and native kanuka have give great thermal value, with long burn times, and are more easily available.
Is Kahikatea native to New Zealand?
What kind of tree is a kahikatea tree?
Definition of kahikatea. : a New Zealand evergreen tree (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides synonym Podocarpus dacrydioides) valued for its light soft easily worked wood, its resin, and the sweet edible aril surrounding its seed. — called also white pine.
What was kahikatea used for in New Zealand?
Kahikatea was also used as late as the 1980s to carve out waka, traditional vessels for Maori, in which they competed in various watersports in Kaituna Wetlands. For Māori, the kahikatea had many uses. The fleshy aril or koroi was an important food resource, and was served at feasts in great amounts.
Why was kahikatea used to make butter boxes?
However, since the wood does not impart an odour, and is clean and lightweight, Kahikatea was used to make boxes for the exporting of butter when the refrigerated export became feasible from Australia and New Zealand in the 1880s. The butter was exported in 56 lb slabs, and kahikatea became less common as the export industry grew.
How big did kahikatea podocarps grow in New Zealand?
Beveridge (1964) describes the dispersal and fate of seeds from New Zealand (Pureora Forest) podocarps. He reported three mast years for kahikatea during a 10-year period, with one more year of reduced but significant seed production. A large mature kahikatea yielded 300 pounds (136 kg) of sound seed, representing 4.5 million seeds.