New Zealand’s Endemic Kauri trees are some of the largest and oldest trees in the world! Here are 7 facts about these giant, ancient trees.
There are some places in nature that seem to have a special feeling about them. I’ve been lucky enough to walk amongst the giant redwood trees in northern California. Those redwoods are huge, old trees that radiated a mystical feeling. Well, the Kauri of New Zealand also seem to posses some mystical aura. It’s not every day that you are in the presence of some species that is 1,000 years old!
7 Kauri Tree Facts
Kauri trees grow in the northern parts of the north island. Unfortunately, these are another native species that has been greatly reduced in numbers since people arrived in New Zealand. They used to be quite widespread, covering over 1 million hectares in the Coromandel and areas of the northland! Today they can be found in small patches across the northland covering only about 7,500 hectares. These trees grow from sea level up to 600 meters in elevation.
Early Maori settlers used the trees, but not as much as some of the other native trees, such as Toatara and Miro. Once the Europeans began arriving in the 1800s the trees began to be heavily used (i.e. cut down). Europeans liked the trees for many things, including for ships, and building materials. In later years the gum of the trees was very valued as a varnish and linoleum. Within 100 years much of the Kauri forest of the northland had been cut down and replaced with farmland!
On average Kauri trees are large, about 30-40 meters tall with a trunk diameter of several meters. That is big, but a few of them grow into an immense size. These trees are the second largest tree in the world by trunk volume.
The biggest of the remaining trees, called Tane Mahuta (the lord of the forest), is just over 50 meters tall with a trunk circumference of 13 meters! It is located in the northland and there is a trail that will take you up near to it. The second biggest, called Te Matua Ngahere (father of the forest), is about 30 meters tall with a trunk circumference of 16 meters!
This is a type of conifer tree. This means that these trees reproduce with cones, just like other conifers. New Zealand is home to 20 species of native conifers, including Kauri, Pahautea, Miro, and Matai.
Kauri trees can live for a very, very long time. Of course, without cutting down the tree it’s hard to know for certain how old a tree is, but scientists estimate that Tane Mahuta is 2,000 years old. Te Matua Ngahere is suspected to be even older, up to 2,500 years old! Just to put that in perspective, the modern calendar started 2,000 years ago! The Roman Empire was still in its infancy. Do you know what is the oldest type of tree in the world?
These trees have a very straight, tall trunk that rises 20 to 30 meters before the branches spread out. That bottom part of the trunk is free of vegetation and is very thick. The upper branches spread out and are covered in epiphytes.