What has the botanical name of ‘ Metrosideros excelsa’ and is tall with green leaves and flowers with spiky, red balls?

Room One Our class tree is: ‘Pōhutukawa Tree’ Research was completed by Room One Students

The Pōhutukawa tree is an evergreen tree and belongs to the myrtle family. Its Greek name is Metrosideros and this means ‘ironwood’. Pōhutukawa is the Maōri name. Its Maōri name means ‘sprinkled by spray’. The wood is very hard and the roots look fibrous and aerial, much like something made from wrought iron. The branches and leaves form a big dome and sometimes it feels like you are sitting underneath a huge umbrella.

The tree flowers from November till January and it is covered in red flowers. When the little strands from the flowers fall to the ground it looks like a ‘red carpet’.

The Pōhutukawa tree is known as the ‘New Zealand Christmas tree because of the timing of its flowering. It is one of our most beautiful and spectacular trees. It usually flowers in the early summer. The flowers have large, red spiky balls.

Our class tree is related to the Rata tree. They can grow to be very tall. A giant Pōhutukawa tree was found in Te Araroa on the East Coast. It was 20 metres tall and had spread for 38 metres. That’s 38 metre rulers!

The Pōhutukawa tree’s leaves are velvety underneath. The flowers are an important source of nectar for bees, bellbird and the tui. Possums threaten the survival of this tree in the wild. An infusion of the bark was used to cure dysentery and diarrhoea.

Maōri people collected the nectar of the Pōhutukawa tree to use for food and to help treat sore throats. You can suck out the nectar through a reed or just poke your tongue into the flower like the tui or the bell bird do. The red timber is extremely strong and durable. It was used by European settlers for making stems and knees in boat building.

The timber from our class tree was also used to make bearings and machine beds, frames and the sills of dock gates. Our tree was also used for firewood.

Our tree grows naturally in northern regions. It is mostly a coastal tree. However, some have been planted in costal areas as far south as Dunedin.

Our class tree is a great specimen tree that can be used for shelter or hedging. Our tree grows easily from fresh seeds. The Maōri people would observe the trees’ flowering. If the flowers started on the lowest branches first then it was an omen that a warm, pleasant summer and a good harvest would follow. If the flowers started from the top then the season would be cold and the crop would be bad.

POHUTUKAWA I think perhaps I'll never see A more magnificent a tree Than our pōhutukawa on display With gorgeous blooms each Christmas Day. Those dangling roots in search will cling To cliff or rocks or anything And nature put this gem so long ago Where other trees just couldn’t grow. Thus in pōhutukawa’s ancient past A gene had formed to make it last And claim today triumphantly That it’s New Zealand’s Christmas-tree. By David Hardy