Kowhai Trees in Wairoa District

Forest and Bird, Issue 162, 1 November 1966, Page 14

Kowhai Trees in Wairoa District

r I ’’HE request Kotuku made in “The Junior •*- Section” of the August issue of “Forest and Bird” for information about kowhais has prompted Dr L. A. Riddell, of Wairoa, to contribute the following observations on this attractive native tree.

I am satisfied that the kowhai “native” to Wairoa has rather bigger leaflets than the adult of the “twiggy” form and has a tendency to show two different shades of flower. Most trees lose their leaves before flowering, but I doubt if leaf loss represents any real variation ; it may be like the differences in forsythia. In cold and exposed areas this is usually leafless at flowering, but cuttings of the plant if planted in a warmer, sunnier spot will develop leaves almost at the same rate as the

flowers, so that it becomes a much less striking plant when in bloom.

Our local kowhai is usually leafless, with dark grey bark, but on some trees the bark is almost black. The black-barked tree usually has the darker flowers, presenting an attractive sight of deep-gold flowers and black bark. Other, greyer, trees have flowers which when young are green-yellow, but even they tend to become golder as the flowers mature before dropping.

The local kowhai bears its flowers in loose bunches of four or five at the ends of twigs. It favours sunny banks and cliffs, but it does not like wet feet, though it likes to take advantage of being reflected in water.

A black and gold kowhai in full bloom must surely be one of the most beautiful trees in the world; it is beautiful but not gaudy, elegant and not majestic, and a real “trier”. A borer-ridden, broken old stump in August will be transformed suddenly in September into a tuis’ delight.

The blooming of the kowhai must of course be light conditioned and not depend on temperature, for on a recent visit to Christchurch I found that the kowhais there were blooming just as they were in Wairoa.