The Kauri (Agathis australis) is a coniferoustree native to the northern North Island of New Zealand. Kauri trees grow straight and tall to around 50 m tall, with smooth bark and small oval leaves. Heavily logged in the past, Kauri are much less common than in pre-European times.
Kauri are predominately found in the northern half of the North Island. The most famous is the Tane Mahuta tree in Northland. Named after the Maori forest god, this tree has become a tourist attraction due to its size.
The Kauri is the largest species of tree in New Zealand, rivalling the sequoia in girth. The size and strength of kauri timber made it a popular wood for construction and ship building, particularly for masts of sailing ships. Its light colour makes it good for furniture. The tree sheds its bark in hand-sized chunks to prevent epiphytes from climbing it.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries kauri gum (semi-fossilised kauri resin) was a valuable commodity, particularly for varnish, and was the focus of a considerable industry at the time.
Kauri are predominately found in the northern half of the North Island.
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries kauri gum (semi-fossilised kauri resin) was a valuable commodity, particularly for varnish, and was the focus of a considerable industry at the time.
Kauri once covered 1.6 million hectares (4 million acres) in the northern half of the North Island, extending as far south as Raglan on the west coast, and just past Tauranga on the east coast.
The trunk of a mature kauri is kept free of epiphytes by continual shedding of thick flakes of bark, which accumulate to form a large mound that eventually decays into a rich humus penetrated by the roots.
The largest kauri was measured in 1850 at Mill Creek, Mercury Bay on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.
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