Corynocarpus laevigatus J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.

국표에 없다.

Karaka or New Zealand laurel (Corynocarpus laevigatus) is a medium-sized evergreen tree in the family Corynocarpaceae. It is endemic to New Zealand and is common throughout the North Island and less common in the South Island. Karaka are also found on the Chatham Islands, Kermadec Islands, and the Three Kings Islands. It is mostly a coastal tree, though in the North Island, it can also be found in lowland inland forests.

It grows to heights up to 15–20 m (49–66 ft) and has a stout trunk up to 60 cm (24 in) in diameter. Its leaves are leathery, dark to bright green in colour and up to 15–30 cm (5.9–11.8 in) long and its orange-coloured fruit is 30–40 mm (1.2–1.6 in) in length. Karaka is a valuable food source for the kererū (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) and the Chatham Islands pigeon (Hemiphaga chathamensis). It is naturalised and considered an invasive species in several Hawaiian islands and is mostly found on the island of Kauai. Karaka is also grown in Southern California.

Karaka is considered a taonga (cultural treasure) amongst the Māori and Moriori peoples, who used it significantly as a food source. On the Chatham Islands, carvings of Moriori ancestors were carved on to karaka trees (known as rākau momori) are considered internationally significant and unique to their culture. An exoplanet originally named HD 137388 was renamed to "Karaka" in 2019 in recognition of the tree's orange-coloured fruit.

Description

Karaka is a medium-sized evergreen leafy canopy tree with erect spreading branches. It grows to heights up to 15–20 m (49–66 ft) and has a stout trunk usually up to 60 cm (24 in) in diameter. The largest trunk's diameter ever measured was 3 m (9.8 ft). Karaka is predominantly a coastal tree, though in the North Island, it can also be found in lowland inland forests.

Mature trees have dark brown corrugated bark with corrugations that are broken up into pieces that are roughly 1 cm × 3 cm (0.39 in × 1.18 in) and 0.5 cm (0.20 in) thick. Younger trees have light brown bark that frequently has short, horizontal bands that resemble sewing stitches. Karaka's dense shade and prolific seeding exclude local species and change the host community's composition and ecological processes in areas where it has been allowed to proliferate.

From August to November, karaka produces large, stout, erect panicles of tiny greenish-yellow flowers, each less than 0.5 cm (0.20 in) in diameter. It starts flowering between August to November and each panicle may have up to 100–200 flowers. The fruit karaka produces is oval shaped and 30–40 mm (1.2–1.6 in) in length; with pale yellow–orange coloured flesh and a poisonous seed which is smooth elliptic and sub-acute at its base. The seed has an open system of fibrous veins on the rough, yellowish surface.

Karaka's wood anatomy prevents them from being dated using the conventional technique of counting annual growth rings in the trunk. Karaka trees planted in Palmerston North in 1962 grew to a height of 14 m (46 ft) in 42 years. The largest stem diameter measured 26.5 cm (10.4 in), and the trees grew 0.68 mm (0.027 in) per year. Other karaka trees grew at different rates; the largest karaka treee on mainland New Zealand which was 500 years old with a diameter at breast height (DBH) of 212 cm (83 in) and a growth rate of 0.43 cm (0.17 in) per year.

The fruit ripens between January and April and the seeds are mostly dispersed by two columbiform birds, the kererū and and the parea, which also feeds on its fruit. In modern-day New Zealand, the majority of karaka seeds germinate within 8 m (26 ft) of a parent tree, indicating that the tree does not normally spread out very far.

 

Karaka (tree) - Wikipedia

https://youtu.be/ImIXh-ecwZk?t=352