The cabbage tree is an iconic tree of the New Zealand landscape. Here are 6 facts about this crazy, Dr. Seuss looking tree.
New Zealand’s landscape is full of truly breathtaking vistas. The most well known and distributed photos have to include shots of mountains and coasts. Well, one of the most distinctive New Zealand trees that can sometimes be found in those photos is the cabbage tree. Its unique shape and tufted leaves stand out in sharp contrast to the surrounding landscape. This tree is as much a sign of New Zealand as the kiwi, volcanoes, the southern alps, and the tuatara.
6 Cabbage Tree Facts – A Distinctive, Useful Tree
This tree (ti kouka in Maori) is endemic to New Zealand and grows up to 20 meters tall. This distinctive looking tree’s trunk has many branches that are topped by tufts of long, slender leaves. The individual leaves can be up to 1 meter long.
Maori used these trees for all kinds of purposes. The root, stem, and leaves were all eaten. Additionally, Maori used the leaves as medicine to cure diarrhea and dysentery. The leaves were also woven into sandals, rope, and baskets.
It grows throughout the country, up to 1,000 meters in elevation. They grow well in moist, wet soils and can be found all along coasts, near rivers, farmland, and open areas.
The cabbage tree is a monocot, meaning that among other things the veins in the leaves run parallel to each other. Some of the other distinctive monocots of NZ include flax and neinei. The cabbage tree is unique looking, yet there are actually a couple other similar looking trees. The neinei is similar looking to the cabbage tree, but is not as widespread. The neinei is also shorter, has shorter leaves, and the trunk is thinner.
As gardeners and homeowners across New Zealand can attest, the leaves do not easily decompose. They are a fibrous material that is not easily cut up. When a lawn mower runs over them they simply get wrapped around the blades and slow down the machine. Well, it turns out that those leaves can help you out. If you bunch them up and save them for winter you can use them to start your fire. The leaves ignite and burn easily.
Maori were not the only people to make use of cabbage trees. Captain Cook brewed beer from them. Early European settlers used them to build chimneys because the trunks are hardy and don’t burn easily. Nowadays they are a popular ornamental tree and are exported throughout the world.