Flora of New Zealand Series

Dacrydium excelsum D. Don in Lamb. Pinus ed. 3, 2 (app.), 1832.

P. thujoides R.Br. in Benn. Pl. jav. rar. 1838, 35.

D. thuioides Banks et Sol. ex Carr. Conif. 1855, 479.

D. ferrugineum Houtte ex Gord. Pin. 1858, 290.

Nageia excelsa O. Kuntze Rev. Gen. Pl. 2, 1891, 800.

P. excelsus (D. Don) Druce in Rep. bot. (Soc.) Exch. Cl. Manchr. for 1916 1917, 640.

Kahikatea. White Pine.

Tree up to 50 m. or more, trunk up to 1·5 m. diam., often fluted and buttressed at base, bark grey. Branchlets slender, drooping. Lvs of juveniles subdistichous, subpatent, narrow-linear, subfalcate, acuminate, decurrent, 3-7 × 0·5-1 mm.; of semi-adults (often with cones and seeds) seldom > 4 mm. long; of adults 1-2 mm. long, imbricating, more appressed, keeled, subtrigonous, lanceolate-subulate to acuminate, with broader base. Male strobili terminal, up to 1 cm. long, sporophylls bisporangiate, apiculus acute. Seeds solitary, terminal on short branchlets, upper 2-3 lvs distinct from lower, forming a receptacle, red, swollen and succulent in fr. Seeds 4-5 mm. long, broadly ovoid, hardly apiculate, black, nutlike.

DIST.: N., S., St. Lowland forest, often dominant in swamp forest.