NEW ZEALAND’S NATIVE TREES JOHN DAWSON & ROB LUCAS with JANE CONNOR Contributions by Patrick Brownsey, Shannel Courtney, Peter de Lange, Phil Garnock-Jones, Mark Large, Don Morrisey, Barry Sneddon To our grandchildren: Contents Lucas and Noah Dawson; Angelina and William Hayter; Grace and Francis Lucas The authors and contributors 7 Clianthus 184 Authors’ preface and Coprosma 188 acknowledgements 9 Cordyline 220 Publisher’s preface and Coriaria 230 acknowledgements 10 Corokia 232 About the book 12 Corynocarpus 233 Map of the North Island 14 Discaria 236 Map of the South Island 15 Dodonaea 238 Dracophyllum 240 INTRODUCTION 17 Dysoxylum 256 Elaeocarpus 260 CONIFERS 36 Elingamita 264 Introduction to conifers 38 Entelea 266 Agathis 46 Fuchsia 268 Dacrycarpus 56 Geniostoma 270 Dacrydium 62 Griselinia 272 Halocarpus 66 Hedycarya 276 First published in 2011 by Craig Potton Publishing Lepidothamnus 72 Hoheria 278 Reprinted 2011 Libocedrus 74 Homalanthus 290 Craig Potton Publishing Manoao 79 Ixerba 292 98 Vickerman Street, PO Box 555, Nelson, New Zealand Phyllocladus 81 Knightia 294 www.craigpotton.co.nz Podocarpus 88 Kunzea 298 Text © John Dawson and Rob Lucas (unless specified otherwise) Prumnopitys 96 Laurelia 302 Photographs © Rob Lucas (unless specified otherwise) Leptecophylla 306 ISBN: 978-1-877517-01-3 (standard edition) TREE FERNS 102 Leptospermum 308 978-1-877517-65-5 (deluxe edition) Introduction to tree ferns 104 Leucopogon 312 Publisher: Jane Connor Cyathea 110 Litsea 314 Editorial: Jane Connor, Sue Hallas Dicksonia 118 Lophomyrtus 317 Index: Diane Lowther Macropiper 320 Design and layout: Jane Connor, Tina Delceg Prepress: Alan Bridgland, Spectra Graphics FLOWERING TREES 122 Melicope 323 Cover typography: Neil Pardington Introduction to flowering trees 124 Melicytus 326 Cover image: ‘Mist over Lake Mapourika’, © Andris Apse Ackama 132 Meryta 336 Printed in China by Everbest Printing Co. Ltd Alectryon 136 Metrosideros 338 Alseuosmia 140 Mida 352 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any Archeria 142 Myoporum 354 process without the permission of the publishers. Aristotelia 144 Myrsine 357 Ascarina 147 Neomyrtus 369 Avicennia 150 Nestegis 370 In keeping with its commitment to supporting science education, the Dick Roberts Community Trust Beilschmiedia 155 Nothofagus 376 generously contributed the cost of donating copies of this book to all New Zealand secondary, intermediate and composite schools to mark Conservation Week 2011. Craig Potton Publishing wishes to also acknowledge Brachyglottis 160 Olearia 394 the generous contribution from Nelson Pine Industries to the costs of publication. Carmichaelia 174 Pennantia 436 All other acknowledgements are on pages 9 and 11. Carpodetus 182 Pisonia 440 Pittosporum 442 Streblus 530 Plagianthus 463 Syzygium 536 Planchonella 466 Toronia 538 Pomaderris 468 Urtica 540 Pouzolzia 472 Veronica 542 The authors and contributors Pseudopanax 474 Vitex 552 Pseudowintera 498 Weinmannia 555 Quintinia 502 Raukaua 504 Appendix 560 DR JOHN DAWSON was Associate Professor of Botany at Victoria Rhopalostylis 508 Glossary 562 University until his retirement in 1988. Since then, he has been undertaking botanical research in New Caledonia, exploring its Schefflera 512 Bibliography and further reading 565 botanical links with New Zealand and researching its largest plant Solanum 514 Index 570 family, Myrtaceae. He has formally described about a quarter of the Sophora 516 c. 250 species of Myrtaceae in New Caledonia, has published two accounts of these and completed a third. John also runs extension courses on New Zealand native plants and guides groups around LIST OF BOXES Otari Native Botanic Garden in Wellington. He is the author of many Beech gaps 25 Pollinators of Hoheria 279 papers on aspects of New Zealand flora, in particular the Apiaceae, and several books, including New Zealand’s conifers 38 Identification: Rewarewa and Forest Vines to Snow Tussocks: The story of New Zealand plants (1988) and Seasons in the Forest Inside a kauri forest 48 hīnau 297 (with photographs by Brian Enting, 1990) Kauri dieback 52 Kānuka and mānuka 301 Epiphytes 54 Trunk buttresses 305 ROB LUCAS lectured in horticulture at The Open Polytechnic of Freshwater swamp forests 58 Mānuka blight 310 New Zealand until his retirement in 2006. He has been photograph- Rimu and kākāpo 65 Mānuka and mycorrhizae 311 ing plants for several decades, and his photographs have been widely Identification: Libocedrus bidwilli Kawakawa moth 322 published in books and magazines. He is the author of Managing and L. plumosa 78 The māhoe stripper 334 Pests and Diseases: A handbook for New Zealand gardeners and co- Identification: Mountain tōtara Australian Myoporum 355 author (with Isobel Gabites) of The Native Garden: Design themes and lowland tōtara 94 Sexual expression and flower from wild New Zealand (1988). Identification: Cyathea and variation in Nestegis 371 Dicksonia 104 Identification: Black and Epiphytes on tree ferns 107 white maire 373 John Dawson and Rob Lucas are co-authors of the award-winning Nature Guide to the New Zea- Tree ferns 108 Inside a beech forest 378 –9 land Forest (2000), Lifestyles of New Zealand Forest Plants (1993), Lifestyles of New Zealand Coast Identification: Hutu and pukatea 148 Thieving from a thief 379 and Mountain Plants (1996) and The Nature of Plants: Habitats, challenges and adaptations (2005). The lifestyle and ecology Cyttaria fungus on silver beech 382 of mangroves 152 Mistletoes 385 JANE CONNOR has been Managing Director and Publisher at Craig Potton Publishing since 2007. She has many years’ experience editing, designing and publishing books on plants, both in Tree daisies 160 What is treeline? 388 New Zealand and internationally. She co-founded Godwit Press and was later Publishing Direc- Magpie moth and Brachyglottis 171 Scale insect—honeydew— tor of Random House New Zealand, before moving to North America, where she was Publisher Pollination of kakabeak 185 sooty mould story 391 and Executive Vice-President of Timber Press in Portland, Oregon. Domatia 189 Hybrids in Olearia 399 Tree species of Coprosma 190–1 Moths and the twiggy olearias 428 DR PATRICK BrOWNSEY is a leading authority on the ferns of New Zealand, Australia and Plagianthus and Hoheria 465 Identification: Coprosma the Pacific. He is a Research Fellow at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa in Wel- arborea and C. spathulata 193 Five-finger as epiphytes 477 lington, and is currently working with staff at Te Papa and Landcare Research in Christchurch Stipules 199 Juvenile and adult forms 489 to prepare an electronic flora of New Zealand. Cabbage tree decline 224 Patē and five-finger 512 How cabbage trees make Kōwhai caterpillar and moth 521 SHANNEL COUrtNEY is a Nelson-based plant ecologist, who has worked with the Depart- their trunks 225 Witches’ broom on Streblus 533 ment of Conservation since 1987, currently specialising in threatened plants. He has an MSc in Cabbage tree moth 229 Tree nettle and butterflies 541 plant ecology, and botanical survey work in Northland, East Cape, Taranaki, Wellington, Nelson, Pulvini 257 Pūriri moth 554 Marlborough, Canterbury and on the Chatham Islands has provided him with a good working Caulifory and ramiflory 259 Tōwai and makamaka 558 knowledge of regional floras. In 2008, he was the recipient of the Loder Cup for his contribution to native plant conservation. 7 DR PETER DE LANGE works as the Threatened Plant Scientist for the Department of Conserva- Authors’ preface and acknowledgements tion. Based in Auckland since 1993, his work includes plant biosystematics, cytology, ethnobotany, threatened plant management, and threat classification systems. A Fellow of the Linnean Society (FLS), Peter is the author of 14 books and 120 scientific papers. He has a particular interest in the conservation and documentation of island floras, and he has worked on the Kermadec Islands, Our forebears’ relentless destruction of large tracts of native forest is something most of us nowa- the Chatham Islands and many of the smaller offshore islands of northern New Zealand. days deplore. Given our now-comfortable lifestyles, it is easy to have this attitude—particularly when we survey the eroding hills and valleys, rapidly aggrading river beds and silt-filled waterways DR PHIL GARNOCK-JONES is a plant taxonomist and Emeritus Professor of Botany at Victoria that this destruction brought about. University of Wellington. After completing his PhD at the University of Canterbury on the tax- New Zealand’s early settlers were fearless forest-fellers—but they had to be. We, too, would onomy of Parahebe (now included in Veronica), he worked for 20 years at Botany Division, DSIR. have seen the world quite differently if we had been living in a flimsy, hastily cobbled-together Between 1994 and 2009, he was Professor of Plant Science at VUW, and taught botany and evolu- hut in the densely forested Hutt valley in the mid-nineteenth century. Given their pressing need tion. He has published 90 papers, mostly on the taxonomy and phylogeny of New Zealand plants. for shelter and security, is it realistic for us to expect them to have taken a more conservation- minded approach to tree felling and forest destruction? Probably not. DR MARK LArgE is a biologist with an interest in fern evolution and paleobotany spanning 30 As our living conditions have improved, so too has our relationship with our landscape, in- years. He has authored many publications, including Tree Ferns (2004) with John Braggins, and cluding our native trees and forests. We have belatedly realised that, if we don’t act now, a lot of acted as botanical consultant for the popular television series ‘Walking with Dinosaurs.’ He is cur- what we have previously taken for granted will soon vanish—forever. What’s more, we’ve learnt rently working, with Professor Peter Lockhart, on a book on the evolution of New Zealand plants.