NATURE NOTES

Press, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22941, 10 February 1940, Page 3 (Supplement)

NATURE NOTES

Pigeonwood, Hedycorya Arborea to botanists, porbkaiwhirl to the Maori, is another tree to which the Canterbury Plains with their hard frosts proved a barrier. We find it on the West Coast as far south as

Preservation Inlet; on the eastern side it does not occur south of Banks Peninsula. Even in favourable localities it becomes only a small tree of a maximum height of about 40ft with a trunk rarely reaching 20in through. The branches nearly all point upwards; as a result even an old tree may occupy only a small space. The young branchlets are downy near the tips. The leaves are up to: five inches long, thick,

PIGEONWOOD

(By L. W. McCaskill)

leathery, dark green - dfaove, somej what paler beneath. Verj occasionally the margins are entire usually they have coarse teeth, widely separated. ' i Male and female -flowers Ml found on different trees. NeithM

flower has petals. Male flowers.#* small and saucer-shaped, of 10 lobes surrounding large ntonlh“S of hairy-tipped stamens. very small female flowers #5 several ovaries each with a coin® stigma. They develop into brig#* red berries about half an inch I®* and much beloved by the nab*® pigeon. .5 When in full berry pigeonwo® is ono of the handsomest plants?® the bush.