THE POHUTUKAWA

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Volume 58, Issue 274, 20 December 1929, Page 8

THE POHUTUKAWA

•XEW ZEALAND' S CHRISTMAS TREE. OLD MAO.RI LEGEXDS. Perhaps the. most striking of the native Xew Zealand trees when in fiower is the pohutukawa, or Xew Zealand Christmas tree, which at this time may be seen in the i'ullness of its erituson glory in and a round Xapier and, in fact. practieally anywhere ncar the sea in New Zealand. . J11 some places very old trees exist, some being as much as 85 years old and about 70 feet in height. Tlie large branches are covered with short dense white hairs, with the searlet fiowers in large terminal cymes. -The pohutukawa, or metrosiderous tomentosa, j-arely thrives far from the sea, and takes j-oot in the most impossible places, often clinging to the sides of clifl's, whence it puts forth long twisled roofs tliat attacli tliemselves to the rocky walls. Specimens may l'requently he found hangi ng from the top of a bnnk witli roots above and tlie branches almost dipping into the sea below. Oysters haAre.been gathered l'rom these pendant branches. It is not uncommon for the pohutukawa to grow quite erert in the Xew Zealand forests. it grows thus in many places on the coast from the Three Kings lsland to Povertv Bay and Taranaki, and inland on the shores of the lakes at Taupo, Waikare, Rotorua, Rotoiti and other lakes of the volcanic plateau. Remarknble it is that on Rangitoto lsland the pohutukawa blossoms profusely when only a few feet in height. A curious. Maori legend surroinids the pohutukawa, which .means, in our Janguage, "spray sprinklpd.'' aud surely it was some vague perception of its fantastic shape and love of the sea that gave the Maoris the irapression that the bough of this tree was the last earthlv connection which departing spirits had with this world hefore they left off'into the Reinga, or underwood. It was believed hy them in tlie olden day that the ghosts of tlie dead travelled northward along the mountain raTiges until they came to tlie ridge of "wild rocks" running out to .sea in the extreme north, kuown as Cape Reinga. Passing nlong this to the verv extremity of the land, they came at last to the giant pohutukawa, witli the great linib overlianging tlie rocks of ocean. To this branch the spirits hung for sqme time. reluctnnt tp leave ihe upper world. At leugth, through a- seaweed fringed cavern they plunged into the gloomy realms of Reinga. But time changes all things. So niany were killed in tlie wars of Hongi that the great branch hecame bent downwards hv tlie number of spirits which througed it. Mr T. F. Cheese.man, tlie well-known New Zealand botanist. visited Reinga in 1895. when the famou.s "spray tprinkled" tree was still to he seeii. It, however. bore marks of extreme old age, and the projeeting hra neh liad long before been broken off, only it.s whitened stump remain ing.