It grows up to 25 m high, with a trunk up to 1.3 m diameter. The leaves are linear to sickle-shaped, 15-25 mm long and 2-3 mm broad, with downcurved margins. The seed cones are highly modified, reduced to a central stem 2-3 cm long bearing 1-3 scales, each scale maturing berry-like, oval, about 20 mm long and 10-15 mm broad, red to purple-red with a soft edible pulp covering the single seed. The seeds are dispersed by the Kereru (New Zealand Pigeon), which eats the 'berries' and passes the seeds in its droppings.
It is distinguished from the related Matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia) by the longer, broader leaves and the longer, oval, red cones.
The scientific name ferruginea derives from the rusty colour of dried herbarium specimens of the leaves.
Portia tree ( Thespesia populnea ; family Malvaceae) is a small tree or arborescent shrub 5-10(-20) m high that is pantropical in littoral environments, although probably native only to the Old World.
In Hawaiâi and elsewhere in the Pacific it is possibly indigenous, although may have been spread by early Polynesians for its useful wood and fiber.
Throughout the 20th century, Pitcairners have sailed to Henderson Island to obtain miro wood.
Joan Miro Ferra, the future artist was the son of a goldsmith and the grandson of a flsmith.
Miro, who was notoriously taciturn, is quoted as saying, "When I see a tree, for instance a carob tree, which is a very typical tree at home in Catalonia, I feel that tree is talking to me. It has eyes.
Miro was embraced by the Surrealists as one of their own and his successful exhibition at the Pierre Gallery, Paris in 1925, had the atmosphere of an official Surrealist demonstration.
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