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Dacrycarpus dacrydioides
Also called White Pine, New Zealand Dacryberry, Kahikatea
Kahikatea is a tall conifer endemic to New Zealand and its tallest native tree, reaching 50 to 65 m. It thrives in damp, fertile, poorly drained lowland soils, so consistent moisture is the key to growing it.
Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, the kahikatea (from Māori) or white pine, is a coniferous tree in the family Podocarpaceae, endemic to New Zealand. It is New Zealand's tallest tree species, gaining heights of 60 metres (200 feet) over a life span of 600 years. It was first described botanically by the French botanist Achille Richard in 1832 as Podocarpus dacrydioides, and was given its current binomial name Dacrycarpus dacrydioides in 1969 by the American botanist David de Laubenfels. Analysis of DNA has confirmed its evolutionary relationship with other species in the genera Dacrycarpus and Dacrydium.
In Māori culture, it is an important source of timber for the building of waka and making of tools, of food in the form of its berries, and of dye. Its use for timber and its damp fertile habitat, ideal for dairy farming, have led to its decimation almost everywhere except South Westland.
Kahikatea is endemic to the North, South, and Stewart Islands of New Zealand, and is the only member of the genus Dacrycarpus found in the country. It inhabits mostly lowland forests between 0–600 m (0–1,969 ft) above sea level, though may in rare cases reach montane areas. It used to dominate a swamp forest type that now exists almost only on the South Westland region of the South Island. Kahikatea prefers flooded or alluvial soils with low levels of drainage, which in Westland occur from post glaciation events.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Dacrycarpus dacrydioides by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
