New Zealand’s endemic Rimu tree is a common, towering tree of the podocarp/broadleaf forest. Here are 7 facts about this magnificent native tree.
The islands of New Zealand are truly a nature lovers paradise. You can go walking around the mountains, coast, and forest without fear of big animals or poisonous snakes. The wildlife is special and so are the plants. Many of the trees look familiar at first glance, but turn out to be some endemic species that doesn’t grow elsewhere. One of the trees that always stands out to me is the Rimu. These trees tower above the forest canopy, have thick trunks, and are absolutely covered in epiphytes.
7 Rimu Tree Facts
This is the most common and widespread native podocarp tree of New Zealand. It can be found in lowland and mountain forest on the North, South, and Stewart Islands.
These trees used to be an important building material. They were cut down and turned into building supplies. Many homes and buildings have beautiful reddish/brown floor boards, doors, or panelling that is Rimu. That coloring of the wood gave rise to calling these trees ‘red pine’. They are now protected from logging on public land, but some continues on private land.
This endemic tree can grow very old. In fact, these trees can grow to the ripe old age of 1,000 years, or more! Just to make sure you realize how crazy that is. That means some Rimu trees were already 250 years old when the first people came to these islands.
I keep saying that these are towering trees that can sometimes be seen standing above the forest canopy. Well, they can grow to be as tall as 50 or 60 meters tall! That is tall, but not as tall as New Zealand’s tallest native tree, the Kahikatea at 80 meters!
This tree is a podocarp, which is a type of conifer. Thus, it produces cones in order to reproduce. Unlike many conifer trees, male and female cones are on separate Rimu trees. The pollen is blown from the male pollen cones to another tree with female cones, where if lucky it will be fertilized. The seeds then grow on a small cone that has a red fleshy fruit attached to a small black seed. These seeds are only produced every 5 to 6 years.
The leaves are scalelike in appearance. Basically, the leaves of this tree are not broad and flat, instead they look like narrow, green, pipe cleaners that have been grouped together. The leaves droop down from the branches of the tree. If the leaves aren’t too high off the ground and you can touch them, they feel stiff and spiky.
The trunk of these trees, especially old ones, can be very thick, averaging around 1.5 meters in diameter. They aren’t as big as the Kauri trees, but some of them can get very big. The bark of older trees is brown and has large flaky strips that fall off.