N.Z. Pepper Tree.
A Garden Corner.
(CALLING ATTENTION to the usefulness of this striking shrub on*Saturday’s garden page, a correspondent front Cronadun, West Coast, inspires me to use it as a subject to-day. It is one of the most abundant of dwarf trees in the Stewart Island bush, and is found, also, all over New Zealand, frequenting the fringe of the bush, where it abounds, often in isolated clumps. It is one of our few coloured foliage plants. Its bark is black and the small leaves of reddish hue blotched with purple. I can well believe it would make an excellent hedge, being short-jointed and hardy. Known officially as Drimys colorata, it gets the pseudonym from bitter astringent leaves, and in the early days was used medicinally, being called “ Maori Painkiller.” Indeed the word drimys means acrid, from the taste. The better known herbal winter bark of commerce is derived from an American species, D. Winteri. There are only three species of the family in New Zealand, one of them, D. Traversi, being found on Mount Rochford, near Westport, and in other parts of the Nelson province, but not further south. T. D. LENNII
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/TS19340723.2.135
Bibliographic details
Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20364, 23 July 1934, Page 10
Word Count
194N.Z. Pepper Tree. Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20364, 23 July 1934, Page 10
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