THE POHUTAKAWA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 52, Issue 3767, 10 June 1936, Page 7

THE POHUTAKAWA

LARGE TREE IN SYDNEY. A writer in the Sydney Morning Herald expresses appreciation of the pohutukawa tree. He recalls that a pohutukawa tree was planted in Vaucluse Park, Sydney, about 90 years ago by William Charles Wentworth. He says it has grown to about GO feet high, and is now a mass of delicate, lace-like scarlet flowers. He adds: “Not so long ago when the main road at Rose Bay was being widened the Woolahra Council decided to plant pohutukawa (meaning ‘spray sprinkled’) along the esplanade as far as the principal entrance to the Royal Sydney Golf Club. The young trees are thriving splendidly.” In an explanatory note the writer says that the pohutukawa rarely thrives far from the sea or an inland lake. Round about New Zealand it finds a foothold in all sorts of impossible-looking places. It often clings to the side of a cliff, and puts forth long twisted roots that attach themselves to the rocky wall. Some are at times found hanging from the top of a foreshore bank, with roots above the branches almost dipping into the seA below. When growing on level ground, such as is the case In Vaucluse Park, great branches of red fibrous rootlets may occasionally be seen hanging from the bough.