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Te rōpū hikoi o te pae maunga o Tararua   -   Celebrating 100 years of tramping

In The Hills In the forest 2011-05

Melicope ternata < Species index > Metrosideros diffusa

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This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 4, May 2011, page 12

May in the hills with Chris Horne

Melicytus ramiflorus, Māhoe, Whiteywood

Melicytus-ramiflorus-01b.jpg: 1600x1037, 594k (2017 Apr 25 00:00)
Melicytus ramiflorus, Māhoe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Melicytus-ramiflorus-04a.jpg: 1083x1600, 532k (2017 Apr 25 00:00)
Melicytus ramiflorus, Māhoe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe

Melicytus ramiflorus, māhoe, whiteywood, a member of the violet family, is endemic to New Zealand. Because it is not highly palatable to possums, it has become a common indigenous tree species in forests in the Wellington region.

Mature trees can reach 10 m, or more, with several trunks over 40 cm in diameter. You may have noticed that they often have many slender, upright branches, called epicormic shoots, near the base of their pale trunks. In Spring, māhoe’s young, light-green leaves highlight its presence in gullies, but on sites exposed to gales, its twigs are often bare of leaves. Look on the forest floor for decaying māhoe leaves which produce delicate skele- tons showing their network of veins.

Māhoe is dioecious, with male trees producing male flow- ers, and female trees producing female flowers. Both sexes flower from November to March. Female māhoe produce violet to dark-blue fruit from November to April, in dense clusters along the branches.

Māori made fire by rubbing the soft, dry wood of dead māhoe with a pointed, hard stick of dry kaikōmako.

Category
Botany 2011

In The Hills 2011-04 < Index chronological > In The Hills 2011-06

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