Flora of New Zealand Series

tree of heaven

Deciduous tree, usually or always dioecious in N.Z., to c. 25 m high with pale-striped, smooth bark, often suckering extensively from underground roots. Buds suborbicular. Lvs 40-60-(70) cm long; rachis glabrous or puberulent. Leaflets 11-25, the terminal one often reduced or abortive; petiole < 1 cm long, puberulent or glabrous. Lamina 7-15-(17) × 3-6-(7.5) cm, narrowly to broadly ovate, acuminate at apex, glabrous, or hairy towards base of midrib below, glaucescent below; basal glands prominent, usually at apex of small basal lobes, sometimes at apex of 2, small, distinct leaflets. Peduncles and pedicels glabrous or slightly puberulent. Fls foetid. Calyx c. 1 mm long; lobes ± triangular-ovate. Petals 2.5-4 mm long, green, white-woolly within and on lower margins. Staminodes of ♀ fls similar in size to stamens of ♂; filaments slender, < to slightly > petals. Pistil rudimentary in ♂ fls. Samara (2.5)-3-5-(4.5) × 0.7-1.4 cm, light reddish brown or pinkish red, tapering at each end, notched on 1 side opposite seed.

N.: Auckland, Masterton; S.: N. Canterbury (Parnassus), Christchurch, S. Canterbury (Holme Station).

China 1983

Mainly on roadsides and in waste places in the vicinity of gardens and plantations.

FL Dec-Jan.

Tree of heaven is widely cultivated in plantations, shrubberies and windbreaks, and because of its propensity to send up sucker shoots which eventually form thickets, sometimes many metres away from the parents, it sometimes escapes from cultivation. This is especially obvious when the parent trees have died or been cut down because large thickets of suckers spring up soon afterwards. Apparently it rarely grows spontaneously from seed.

Tree of heaven is sometimes mistaken for members of the Anacardiaceae, particularly the very poisonous sect. Toxicodendron of Rhus, but an easy character which identifies the tree of heaven is the small glandular pads on the basal lf lobes. It has also been known as A. glandulosa in N.Z.