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=RIMU= (//Dacrydium cupressinum//). Timber from rimu has been the main native timber in use since about 1910 when it began to displace kauri, and, as far as one can see, it is likely to remain indefinitely in this position. The quantities available, however, will fall rapidly in the next one or two decades as resources become exhausted. The timber of the rimu is comparatively hard and dense. The tree is a conifer belonging to a group of forest trees, which includes the genus //Podocarpus//, that is widely represented in highland forests in countries on the west side of the Pacific. There is disagreement amongst botanists as to the division between the two genera //Podocarpus// and //Dacrydium// and, also, to which genus the New Zealand species belong. Rimu grows to heights of about 100 ft and occasionally 150 ft, and the trunk is usually about 3 ft, but can be as much as 6–7 ft, in diameter. The branchlets have a distinctive pendulous character, those on young trees being particularly graceful in appearance. The leaves are small and awl-shaped. Rimu is the most widespread of all New Zealand forest trees, occurring throughout the North, South, and Stewart Islands from lowland to montane forest. In most places the large, rounded heads of a few to a dozen or so trees per acre emerge well above the general level of the canopy of broadleaf trees below. Such forests have little or no regeneration and seldom contain any trees in the intermediate stages. The large trees can be anything up from 700 to 800 or even 1,000 years old. The facts of age and structure of such forest have given rise to the theory that the rimu is a relic of past climates which have been more favourable to it. It is certainly not replacing itself. However, along the edges of some forests on the pumice plateau of central North Island the rimu is younger, and intermediate age-classes and regeneration do occur. It is also present in secondary “scrub” on clay soils of the north. On the West Coast of the South Island and on Stewart Island a special type of forest, usually referred to as rimu pole forest, occurs on flat, very wet terraces. In these there is complete representation of age-classes from plentiful regeneration onwards. The older trees seldom exceed 3 ft in diameter but they often occur densely with crowns almost touching. These forests do offer hope of permanent management (and so, in the long run, the only permanent supply of rimu timber) since they grow on difficult soils unsuited to agriculture. Rotations, however, must be long and reckoned in terms of a few hundred years. The European name for rimu, especially in the South Island, is red pine. =Ancient Kauri Tree= Kauri wood is found in swamps in the north of New Zealand. The kauri wood can be preserved for up to 45 000 years. The wood is the oldest workable wood in the world. The gum in the kauri tree is very cosly to buy. You are not allowed to cut down kauri trees but you are allowed to use the wood from the fallen down kauri trees. http://www.ancientkauri.co.nz/index.php/zealand_ancient_swamp_kauri_wood = =

= = = = = = = = =KAHIKATEA or WHITE PINE= (//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. The tree has been noted for the density and purity of the stands it forms in swampy areas. Here it is a truly gregarious species and a few hundred stems per acre of mature tree are common. When peaty swamps are drained, kahikatea tree stumps in similar densities are sometimes exposed, indicating earlier forests. It is also present in forests other than swamp forest, but in these it is rapidly being cut out. Kahikatea grows to heights of over 150 ft and is the tallest of New Zealand forest trees. In diameter it is seldom more than 3 to 4 ft and the trunks have a long slender appearance topped by a smallish ragged crown. It is a conifer belonging to the same genus as other important forest trees such as matai, //P. spicatus//, and totara, //P. totara//. Leaves are small and awl-shaped. Juvenile plants are particularly sparse in branching habit and in leaves. Seeds are small and rounded, borne on a red receptacle, and are often produced in profusion. The timber is non-durable and especially subject to damage by house borer (//Anobium//). Nevertheless, it has many excellent properties including the absence of odour. This caused it to be in great demand for butter boxes, cheese crates, and tallow casks in the days before fibre-board containers. Consequently there was then a sizable export trade in the timber to Australia and Europe. White pine is still used for casks. =Pohutukawa= = = The pohutukawa tree is know to some New zealanders has the New Zealand Christmas tree. This is the best known of New Zealand coastal trees because of its attractive wide-spreading habit and the profusion of red flowers it bears about Christmas time. Although confined naturally to the Three Kings, the North Island coast down to Poverty Bay and Uremic, and the shores of lakes on the volcanic plateau, the tree is widely planted even well south of these limits. It grows to 60 ft high and the trunk, which divides early, is some 6 ft through at the base. Masses of small fibrous roots sometimes hang down from the lower branches. The leaves are 1–3 in. long, elliptic, and covered below with a tight mat of hairs. Flowers are borne in terminal cymes. The buds are whitish before they break and the numerous stamens, which give the flower its colour, are shades of crimson and red. The capsules contain numerous tiny seeds which germinate on damp clay or in rock crevices. The genus //Metrosideros// contains other outstanding native trees, in particular the northern and southern ratas, //M. robusta// and //M.////umbellata//. It belongs to the myrtle family containing eucalyptus which are the main natural foods of the Australian opossum. In New Zealand this animal feeds on pohutukawas and destroys some.