Podocarpus totara
Template:Short description Template:About Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Speciesbox
Podocarpus totara (Template:IPAc-en),<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> commonly known as the Template:Lang, is a species of podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. Found across New Zealand, the tree is can grow up to a height of Template:Cvt, and is known for its longevity.
The wood of tōtara is rot-resistant, and prized in Māori culture, and was often used as a material to create large-scale waka.
Description
The tōtara is a medium to large tree, which grows slowly to around Template:Convert exceptionally to Template:Convert; it is noted for its longevity and the great girth of its trunk. The bark peels off in papery flakes, with a purplish to golden brown hue. The sharp, dull-green, needle-like leaves are stiff and leathery, Template:Convert long. This plant produces highly modified cones with two to four fused, fleshy, berry-like, juicy scales, bright red when mature. The cone contains one or two rounded seeds at the apex of the scales.
The largest known living tōtara, the Pouakani Tree, near Pureora in the central North Island, is over Template:Convert tall and nearly Template:Convert in trunk diameter at breast height.<ref name="totara-history">Template:Cite book</ref> Bushmen discovered it in 1950.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Other large trees are known in this area, while Whirinaki Forest, to the east, but also on deep recent volcanic soils, has groves of very tall tōtara (over Template:Convert in height).
Taxonomy
The first informal description of Podocarpus totara was by Australian naturalist George Bennett in 1832, published as an appendix to Aylmer Bourke Lambert's third edition second volume of A Description of the Genus Pinus.<ref>Template:Cite Q</ref> When the species was formally described by David Don, he used Bennett's binomial name.<ref name="POWO">Template:Cite web</ref>
The two varieties of tōtara are:<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
- Podocarpus totara var. totara
- Podocarpus totara var. waihoensis
Podocarpus totara var. waihoensis, also known as the Westland tōtara, is a variety found in the West Coast Region of the South Island, approximately south from the Waiho River. The variety is not recognised by some authors, and it may potentially be a hybrid of Podocarpus totara and Podocarpus acutifolius.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Etymology
Its Māori name comes from the Proto-Polynesian word *tootara (related to the word tara lit. 'thorn') which when passed down to descendant languages refer to spiny creatures, especially the porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix) due to its spiky leaves.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The species epithet totara comes from the Māori language name.<ref name="MeaningTrees">Template:Cite q</ref> The spelling "totara" without the tohutō is also common in English.Template:Cn
Distribution and habitat
Podocarpus totara is found in both the North Island and the South Island, growing in both lowland, montane and lower subalpine habitats, at elevations of up to Template:Convert<ref name="MeaningTrees"/><ref name="PlantConservation">Template:Cite web</ref> It is rarely found on Stewart Island / Rakiura.<ref name="PlantConservation"/> Tōtara is commonly found in lowland areas where the soil is fertile and well drained.<ref name="Te Ara">Template:Cite web</ref>
Tōtara is often found regenerating on farmland, as it is not eaten by livestock.<ref name="Te Ara" /> Tōtara is so commonly found on Northland farms that some farmers consider the tree to be a weed.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/>
Related trees
In a classic example of Antarctic flora species-pair the tōtara is very closely related to Podocarpus nubigenus from South America, to the extent that if planted together, they are very difficult to distinguish. The best distinction is the grey-green tone of the leaves, compared to the slightly brighter green of P. nubigenus.Template:Cn
Cultivation
Tōtara grows easily from fresh seed and cuttings.<ref name="PlantConservation"/> It has been planted in the United Kingdom as far north as Inverewe, Scotland.<ref name="Royal Horticultural Society">Template:Cite web</ref>
Several cultivars for garden use have been introduced. These include 'Albany Gold' and 'Aurea', both have yellow 'gold' foliage that darkens in winter; 'Pendula', which has a weeping growth habit that is especially pronounced in young plants; 'Silver Falls', also pendulous but with cream-edged foliage; and 'Matapouri Blue', which has a conical form and glaucous foliage.
Human use
The wood is hard, straight-grained, and very resistant to rot, especially its heartwood. Due to its durability, tōtara wood was often used for fence posts, floor pilings, and railway sleepers. It is also prized for its carving properties, and was the primary wood used in Māori carving. It was the primary wood used to make waka (canoes) in traditional Māori boat building due to its relatively light weight (about 25% lighter than kauri), long, straight lengths, and natural oils in the wood that help prevent rotting. Tōtara could be drilled with chert points to make holes near the edges of the timber without splitting. In larger tōtara waka, three or more sections were laced together with flax rope. A tōtara waka took at least a year to make using stone adzes.
During European settlement, tōtara wood was prized as a rot-resistant, strong and durable material, used to construct wharf piles, railway sleepers and fence posts.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/>
Bark from tōtara is used to cover and protect traditional pōhā bags,<ref name="Landcare1">Template:Cite web</ref> and smoke from tōtara wood was used as a traditional remedy for skin ailments.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/> Early European settlers working in the bush would often make infusions of tōtara leaves for upset stomachs.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/>
The red flesh of tōtara berries is edible.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/>
The diterpene totarol was first isolated from the heartwood of Podocarpus totara in 1910, during investigations into what caused the tree's resistance to rotting.<ref name= "Short_1937">Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> While totarol is no longer typically isolated from the tree in commercial production, it is a common ingredient in cosmetics.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/>
Symbolic meaning
Within Māori culture, the tōtara is regarded as a symbol of strength and mana. Upon the death of a prominent figure, the phrase Kua hinga te tōtara i te wao nui a Tāne ("A mighty tōtara has fallen in the forest of Tāne") or similar is often used as a mark of respect.<ref>Metuamate, Areti "Opinion: Tariana Turia – Kua hinga te Tōtara (the mighty Tōtara has fallen)." New Zealand Herald, 3 January 2025.Retrieved 15 June 2025.</ref><ref>Hurihanganui, Te Aniwa "Te Huirangi Waikerepuru dies aged 91." Radio New Zealand, 9 April 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2025.</ref> Because of its use as a material for waka, the tōtara is often associated with Tūmatauenga, the god of war, and an alternative name for the tree is Tū-kau-Moana, or Tū who swims in the ocean.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/>
Due to the tree's resistance to rot, tōtara logs would often be long-lasting fixtures of rivers, lakes and harbours. This led to tōtara logs becoming associated with taniwha, such as Te Upoko o Huraki Tai, a taniwha believed to inhabit a tōtara log on Lake Rotoiti, and Rangititi, who lived on a log on the Wairoa River near Dargaville. Rangititi is seen as a poor omen to Ngāti Whātua, who traditionally interpret birds landing on the log as a sign of death.<ref name="MeaningTrees"/>
Gallery
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Receptacle and seed of tōtara -
The reddish-grey bark of the tōtara is thick, corky, furrowed and stringy -
Herbarium specimen -
Trunk of a tōtara tree in Prouse Bush, Levin, New Zealand
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