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Dysoxylum spectabile
Kohekohe is a medium-sized New Zealand tree in the mahogany family, found in lowland and coastal forests of the North Island and Marlborough Sounds. It grows well in damp, sheltered spots with some shade, and is grown in gardens mainly for its large glossy leaves and unusual trunk-borne flowers and fruit.
Kohekohe (Didymocheton spectabilis) is a medium-sized tree in the Meliaceae family, native to New Zealand. It is found in lowland and coastal forests throughout most of the North Island and also occurs in the Marlborough Sounds in the north of the South Island. Mature trees grow up to 15 metres (50 ft) in height, with a trunk up to a metre in diameter.
Kohekohe forest used to be common in damp coastal and lowland areas in the North Island, but these forests have mostly disappeared because the land was used for settlement or they were browsed by possums. Studies have shown rapid recovery in kohekohe canopy after implementation of possum control. Kohekohe was probably the dominant vegetation cover on Kapiti Island before it was cleared in the early 19th century for cultivation and farming. The kohekohe forest on Kapiti is recovering after possums were eradicated in 1986.
Māori boiled the bark in water and drank it as a tonic. The wood was used for building waka but it is soft and not as durable as other woods and tends to rot quickly. It is valued for carving and, since older trees are often hollow, for making waka.
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Kohekohe 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.
