rewarewa with comb-like flowers loved by tūī

Size
Height: 15–25 m
Lifespan
100–200 years
Diet
Produces long, tubular, red flowers rich in nectar, attracting tūī, bellbirds, and kākā. Flowers followed by large, woody seed pods containing winged seeds that are wind-dispersed. Flowers spectacular in spring, with tree often covered in red blooms that are a magnet for native birds.
Habitat
Lowland and montane forests throughout North Island and northern South Island. A tree of hills, ridges, and well-drained slopes. Often found in regenerating bush and along forest margins where light is bright and competition fierce. A tree of edges, a pioneer of open places.
Range
Found throughout the North Island and northern South Island (north of Greymouth and Kaikoura). Most common in lowland and montane forests, particularly on hillslopes, ridges, and in regenerating bush where light is bright and competition fierce.
Endemism
Endemic
Main Threats
None significant – this species is still common in native forests throughout its range. A fast-growing pioneer often one of first trees to colonise a clearing or slip. Faces no major threats and is also a popular specimen tree in parks and gardens.
Population
Not Threatened. Still common in native forests throughout its range. A fast-growing pioneer often one of first trees to colonise a clearing or slip. Not rare. Just a tree that knows how to make an entrance.
Conservation Status
Not Threatened
The honeysuckle tree looks like nothing else in the New Zealand bush. Rewarewa trunk is tall and straight, often reaching 20 metres or more, and its bark is dark and deeply furrowed – not rough like tōtara or flaky like rimu, but patterned in vertical ridges that look exactly like corduroy. Run your hand up the trunk and you will feel the ribs, the parallel lines of dark, corky bark. What makes it special? The flowers. In spring, Rewarewa erupts in clusters of striking, reddish-brown, finger-like blossoms. They hang from branches like candles or like fingers of an upturned hand. Each flower is a tube, curved and split at tip, filled with nectar. Not showy in the way of pōhutukawa – darker, more subtle, more mysterious. But tūī and bellbird know them. They dive into flowers, drinking sweet nectar, emerging with heads dusted in pollen. The leaves are another clue. Rewarewa has long, narrow, leathery leaves with a serrated edge – like a saw blade. Top surface is dark green and glossy; underside paler, covered in fine, silvery hairs. Leaves arranged alternately along branches, giving the tree a somewhat sparse, open canopy. Not a shade tree. A tree that lets the light through. The wood is dense, heavy, and beautifully figured – reddish-brown with striking grain pattern. Used by Māori for tools, weapons, handles of adzes. A wood that takes a fine polish, sometimes used for decorative carving. The name Rewarewa is thought to refer to the long, straight grain of the wood. Biologically, Rewarewa is a member of Proteaceae family – same family as Australian banksias and grevilleas. A tree of ancient southern supercontinent Gondwana, a lineage dating back millions of years. Its flowers are adapted for bird pollination – curved tubes, abundant nectar, tough, leathery petals that withstand the beak of a tūī. To stand under a Rewarewa in full flower is to stand under a tree of dark candles. Reddish-brown blossoms hang from branches, buzzing with bees and birds. Tūī drunk on nectar, chasing each other through canopy. Bark ridged like corduroy, leaves serrated like saw blades, wood dark and heavy. A tree of texture, of pattern, of hidden beauty.