''Plagianthus regius'' or lowland ribbonwood is a tree that is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. The common name is simply ''ribbonwood''. The

Māori Māori or Maori can refer to: Relating to the Māori people * Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group * Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand * Māori culture * Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...

name is manatu but is also known as houi, manaui manatu, puruhi and whauwhi. The juvenile form has bushy interlacing branches with small leaves, while an older tree will tend to have larger leaves, sometimes with the lower parts of tree still displaying

divaricating Divaricate means branching, or having separation or a degree of separation. The angle between branches is wide. In botany In botany, the term is often used to describe the branching pattern of plants. Plants are said to be divaricating when the ...

leaves. A profusion of small white or green flowers appear in dense clusters in spring making it easier to distinguish from the similar

lacebark Lacebark is a common name for several plants, lacebark trees and may refer to: * lacebark or lace-bark, a textile made from ''Lagetta lagetto'' species * lacebark, a common name for species in the genus ''Brachychiton'' * lacebark, a common name fo ...

genus. One of the distinctive aspects of this tree is that it is usually

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

which is unusual for

, although in the northern areas it can be semi-deciduous. It is considered the largest of New Zealand's deciduous trees growing to 17 metres, and grows in the North, South and Stewart Islands. A subspecies from the

Chatham Islands The Chatham Islands ( ) (Moriori: ''Rēkohu'', 'Misty Sun'; mi, Wharekauri) are an archipelago in the Pacific Ocean about east of New Zealand's South Island. They are administered as part of New Zealand. The archipelago consists of about te ...

, ''Plagianthus regius'' subsp. ''chathamicus'', is very similar but lacks the divaricating aspect. The bark of the tree was used in

Māori traditional textiles Māori traditional textiles are the indigenous textiles of the Māori people of New Zealand. The organisation Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa, the national Māori weavers' collective, aims to preserve and foster the skills of making and using ...

such as in fishing nets.

References

Malveae Trees of New Zealand Divaricating plants {{Malveae-stub

See also

References