A King of the forest

Press, 5 August 1976, Page 11

A King of the forest

One of our most beautiful trees is the rirnu, or red pine. It grows to a lofty height, standing like a giant among the other forest trees. It is not only tall. Is is a most graceful tree, and the younger ones, in particular, droop their slender branches gently towards the earth.

The tree has dark brown bark which peels off in long flakes, and its little close-set leaves are rough to touch. In winter, the green leaves of young rimu trees sometimes show handsome bronze colours. I hope you can find one in your Botanical Gardens. The Maoris used the bark and leaves for curing sores. They also used the resinous heart wood for torches. They split it into shreds and these bundles of split wood burnt with bright and steady flames. Captain Cook found that the rimu was useful, too. When he visited New Zealand in 1773, many of his sailors were sick from scurvy an unpleasant illness caused through lack of fresh vegetables and fruit. He made his men a special beer from young rimu branches and

their suffering was relieved. The early settlers had another use for rimu. Those with bald heads rubbed the juice from cut stems over their bare patches. Apparently, some of them did grow hair again. Today, we use rimu wood for housebuilding, furniture, and panelling. The twisted grain of the

heart timber is decorative and the colour is deep red. However, I think that we would be wise to think less of the uses of this tree and treasure it for its beauty. It becomes a tall tree only after many many years of growth. Once, 10,000 years ago, there were dense forests of rimu. Now the tree is absent in some areas, gnd less common in many.

Here is the final part of Tikimu’s story. We left Tufter and his friends drifting helplessly on a tree branch .. .