Pohutukawa
New Zealand Christmas Tree

The pohutukawa tree is often referred to as the New Zealand Christmas tree. His bright red coat of flower heads from November to January the summer season is accountable for that.

They are home to the coast withstanding wind, storm, and spray of seawater. Branches spread horizontal along the cliffs with a myriad of aerial roots in search for ground to cling to. An anatomy that is ideal to colonise unstable ground, rock, and lava.

Pohutukawa Flowers

Its appearance and ability to adjust easily to environments the pohutukawas are today found far from their natural territory and beautify gardens in North America and South Africa. Within New Zealand we find the tree at the coast and inland. There their look is influenced by present conditions that let them grow upright and tall.

Despite the New Zealand Christmas tree’s flexibility it suffers from introduced threads like possums. To secure its place on the coastline of Northland the Project Crimson was called into live.

With their determination to safeguard this magnificent tree will live on to inspire. Artists bring canvas with its motif to live, writers express their inspiration in poems and Christmas carols, children climb and swing on the tree, and families gather in the shade of its expanding branches.

Long before settlers set their foot onto New Zealand the Maori people of the land regarded pohutukawa as one of the chiefly trees and individual ones were sacred.

It is rooted in stories like the canoe arrival of the Arawa tribe. Their leading chief intrigued by the crimson-fringed coast let go of his feather headdress only to reveal that the believed feathers in the distance were fragile pohutukawa blooms. A story that let us understand the Maori name given Pohutukawa translates into a red feathered headdress. Po has different meanings amongst which it can refer to the night or underworld.

Another myth that converts the tree’s position in Maori tradition is about the pohutukawa tree right at the edge of Cape Reinga where the Pacific and the Tasman Sea meet. This point is considered the departing point of the spirits to the next world. They supposedly slide down the tree’s roots to join their ancestors.

In everyday life a pohutukawa tree was planted in memory of chiefs, battlefields, or birth of a chief’s son. Healing power was recognised in bark juice and nectar for diverse complaints. More common for today is to enjoy Pohutukawa Honey as a sweet treat on your toast.

Altogether the New Zealand Christmas tree is significant for its beauty and its national value to the landscape and to the people.

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