Emergent Layer Tree Examples
Emergent Layer Tree Examples
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Dacrycarpus dacrydioides
Kahikatea / White Pine
They are the oldest member of the ancient Podocarp family and have been around for more than 160 million years. Kahikatea are sometimes called dinosaur trees because they existed alongside the dinosaurs during the Jurassic period. They support whole ecosystems on their trunks and branches. A scientist once found 28 different plants living on one tree. They love fertile swampy ground which is abundant around the Rotokare lake. The tree grows to a height of 55 m with a trunk exceeding 1m in diameter and is buttressed at the base. They can live for over 500 years.
The leaves are spirally arranged on young plants, they are awl-shaped 3 to 8 mm long, and scale-like on mature trees, 1 to 3 mm long. The seeds are dispersed by birds which eat the fleshy scale and pass the seeds in their droppings.
For Maori, the kahikatea had many uses. The fleshy aril or koroi was an important food resource and was served at feasts in great amounts. They constructed the waka (canoe) with it. Soot obtained from burning the heartwood supplied a pigment for traditional tattooing (ta moko). The wood was also favoured for making bird spears.
Broad crown on stout upright spreading branches. It grows up to 33 m high, with a trunk up to 2.35 m in diameter and is thought to have a life span of 1000 years. It has grey-brown dotted bark that flakes off in thick round or oval chunks, whitish underneath, leaving red patches on the trunk.
Prumnopitys taxifolia
Matai / Black Pine
The adult leaves of the Matai are dark green above, with a silvery-blue undersurface, and are linear to sickle-shaped 10–15 mm long and 1.5–2 mm broad. All leaves have round tips with a small point. The fruit is fleshy, and the seeds are dispersed by the Kereru (New Zealand Pigeon), which eats the 'berries' and passes the seeds in its droppings.
The hard timber of this tree was used extensively in New Zealand for flooring during the mid-20th century. Matai is not threatened, although as a forest type it has been greatly reduced through widespread logging. Very few intact examples of Matai-dominated forests remain.
Podocarpus totara
Totara
A conifer reaching 30m high with a diameter of up to 2.5m. It has thick stringy bark and its leaves are a dark green-brownish colour and are 13-25 mm long, linear and sharp pointed.
Māori prized this forest tree more highly than any other because of the remarkable qualities of its timber. The heartwood is very durable and the Māori found the wood could be readily split and shaped with primitive stone tools for canoes, building, and carving.
The red fruit cup that carries the seed is edible. The bitter gum was applied to wounds to stop bleeding and the leaves were used to heal wounds. The bruised inner bark was applied to burns.
Dacrydium cupressinum
Rimu / Red Pine
Rimu is a slow-growing conifer tree, eventually attaining a height of up to 50m although most surviving large trees are 20 to 35m tall. The trunk is usually about 1m but can be as much as 2m in diameter. The bark scales off in large flakes. The branchlets have a distinctive weeping form. The leaves are small and awl-shaped and the mature leaves are fine and sharp. The cones are set at irregular intervals and males and females are on separate trees.
The large trees can be anything up from 700 to 800 or even 1,000 years old. The small cones (5mm) that form at the end of branchlets of female trees take about 18 months to ripen, and the seeds are produced only every 5 to 6 years.
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