The giant Kauri is a kind of primitive pine that belongs to the ancient Araucariaceae Family of trees that were prolific before dinosaurs and the Gondawana super-continent broke up. In far northern New Zealand swamps, kauri trees were discovered preserved under water that grew 30-50,000 years ago.
The Southern Kauri (Agathis australis) is found only in New Zealand's northern tropical rain forest, where they grow to immense size. They rival California's giant redwoods. Early settlers who saw their massive columns of smooth, white trunks, and elegant tracery of high canopy likened them to Gothic cathedrals. The largest individuals alive today are more than 2,000 years old.
Before Europeans arrived, Kauri Forest covered 4 million acres of New Zealand's North Island. When Captain Cook saw the forests in 1769, he wrote, "The banks of the river were completely clothed with the finest timber my eyes have ever seen..." His excitement attracted European timber men, who brought wholesale destruction to the ancient and majestic kauris. In 150 years, they shrunk to barely 18,420 acres.
Late in the 20th century, people began to appreciate Kauri Forests once more. Today, several refuges protect the remaining giants for posterity. In Waipoua Forest, visitors can walk among trees that have grown for 2,000 years to see the best-known gigantic specimen of all: Tane Mahuta—"The Lord of the Forest"—the tallest standing Kauri Tree.
Recently, seed from Tane Mahuta was gathered to propagate into a new generations to christen a new millennium dedicated to the reforestation of New Zealand. For news about Tane Mahuta's Millennium Forest, visit:
Identification
The Kauri Tree is
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Leaves
Flowers: To reproduce, pollen from male catkins must contact female cones, which are green and golf ball size.
Fruit: In autumn, tiny winged seeds are ejected from cones, but they survive only a few days.
Bark: The kauri's most remarkable feature is its smooth, light grey bark on its immense columnar trunks.
Resin: A resinous sap known as "kauri gum" exudes from wounds in branches or bark, congealing in lumps to defend against wood-boring insects and infections. Kauri gum accumulates in the crown and roots. This gum became even more valuable than timber. Bleeding gum from living trees was widely practiced, and caused considerable damage to trees, often resulting in their death.
Exposed to air, or buried in soil a long time, the gum hardens. Fossil kauri gum produced by long-vanished trees was buried in the ground to harden over centuries. Mining fossil gum—a laborious occupation—occupied 20,000 people in the 1890s. High-grade fossil gum was used for amber beads and jewelry. Soft gum was carved into trinkets. Both gums were manufactured into high-grade varnish and linoleum.
Wood: The British Navy and merchants from Sydney, Australia began the trade in kauri timber 200 years ago. The first kauris exploited grew close to natural harbors, and prized for masts and spars for sailing ships. Later, timber became lumber for house building—the trees so large one could build six houses.
Timber industry quickly became established. Honey-colored kauri wood gained acceptance for making furniture, and kauri became the preferred building material in Pacific countries. As the trees vanished, loggers moved inland
Culture
Kauri Trees grow in association with other tree species, vines and shrubs, to form shimmering forest stands, while grass trees, ferns and orchids are also typical. The trees' huge crowns support many epiphytic plants, including ferns and orchids.
The kauri have an ingenious way to remove parasitic plants: by shedding plates of mottled bark when one attaches itself.
A curious feature of kauri trees is that as they develop, they change shape, as well as size. Young kauris compete with, and eventually overtake, copper-colored celery pines. Shade cast by the giant kauris, and nutrient-poor soils around them, prevent other trees from becoming established.
As a young "ricker", in adolescence, the tall, thin-stemmed tree grows rapidly to a narrow, conical shape. As it approaches maturity-100-120 years old-it develops a distinctive crown. Soon after the crown has begun to form, the lower limbs die and fall off, leaving the smooth grey trunk that typifies an ancient kauri tree. The crown continues to fan out, to become an immense framework of branches. To support this top-heavy shape, tap roots extend many yards deep into the ground. Knob-like structures develop at the tree's base to provide extra stability.
At a great age—hundreds of years—the trunk often becomes hollow, but new roots form to link the crown and the ground by passing down the tree's inside. Thus, kauris flourish into old age.
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Related Species: Fourteen kauri species and two sub-species grow in tropical regions of Australia, Melansia, New Guinea, the Philippines, the Celebes, Borneo, Sumatra, and the Malay peninsula. More distant kauri relatives include monkey puzzle and parana pine of South America, and Norfolk Island pine.