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Clianthus magnificus, commonly known as kaka beak (kōwhai ngutu-kākā in Māori), is a woody legume shrub native to New Zealand's North Island. It is one of two species of Clianthus (kaka beak) and both have striking clusters of red flowers which resemble the beak of the kaka, a New Zealand parrot.
The species is endangered in the wild, with only 153 trees found in a 2005 survey (down from over 1000 in 1996), in the East Coast and northern Hawkes Bay regions. In 2023, the plant was voted New Zealand's favourite plant of the year in a competition run by the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network.
Prior to the 1990s, C. magnificus was rarely cultivated, most stock available for cultivation being C. puniceus (then C. puniceus var. puniceus). C. magnificus is now widely available in garden shops in New Zealand.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Clianthus magnificus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts are shared under the same licence.
