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  4. Corynocarpus laevigatus

Corynocarpus laevigatus

Ripe fruit, Ship Cove.<br>Photographer: Simon Walls, Date taken: 01/02/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
karaka.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
karaka.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Karaka.<br>Photographer: Wayne Bennett, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Karaka.<br>Photographer: Wayne Bennett, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Karaka.<br>Photographer: Wayne Bennett, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Paraparaumu.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 30/01/1986, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>.
Turakirae Head.<br>Photographer: Jeremy R. Rolfe, Date taken: 16/07/2002, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0'>CC BY</a>.
Kaikoura.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Kaikoura.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Kaikoura.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Seedlings. Lake Westmere, Whanganui. Feb 2013.<br>Photographer: Colin C. Ogle, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Seedlings. Lake Westmere, Whanganui. Feb 2013.<br>Photographer: Colin C. Ogle, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Cathedral Cove, Coromandel.<br>Photographer: John Sawyer, Date taken: 01/08/2013, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Dense seedlings in disturbed native forest remnant, Alton, near Patea.<br>Photographer: Colin C. Ogle, Date taken: 24/11/2018, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Dense seedlings in disturbed native forest remnant, Alton, near Patea.<br>Photographer: Colin C. Ogle, Date taken: 24/11/2018, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
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Skull and crossbones

Poisonous plant

Common name

karaka, kopi

Synonyms

None

Family

Corynocarpaceae

Authority

Corynocarpus laevigatus J.R.Forst. et G.Forst.

Flora category

Vascular – Native

Endemic taxon

Yes

Endemic genus

No

Endemic family

No

Structural class

Trees & Shrubs - Dicotyledons

NVS code

The National Vegetation Survey (NVS) Databank is a physical archive and electronic databank containing records of over 94,000 vegetation survey plots - including data from over 19,000 permanent plots. NVS maintains a standard set of species code abbreviations that correspond to standard scientific plant names from the Ngä Tipu o Aotearoa - New Zealand Plants database.

CORLAE

Chromosome number

2n = 44

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

The conservation status of all known New Zealand vascular plant taxa at the rank of species and below were reassessed in 2017 using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). This report includes a statistical summary and brief notes on changes since 2012 and replaces all previous NZTCS lists for vascular plants. Authors: By Peter J. de Lange, Jeremy R. Rolfe, John W. Barkla, Shannel P. Courtney, Paul D. Champion, Leon R. Perrie, Sarah M. Beadel, Kerry A. Ford, Ilse Breitwieser, Ines Schönberger, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Peter B. Heenan and Kate Ladley.

2012 | Not Threatened

Previous conservation statuses

2009 | Not Threatened

2004 | Not Threatened

Brief description

Large tree about as wide as tall with many thick dark green glossy leaves and large oval orange fruit. Bark dark, with dark spots on trunk. Leaves 10-20cm long, paler underneath. Fruit to 4cm long, oval, in dense sprays, flesh thin.

Distribution

Endemic. Exact indigenous distribution uncertain due to its widespread historic planting by Maori. Common from Raoul and the Three Kings Islands, throughout the North and South Islands to Banks Peninsula and Okarito. Also on the Chatham Islands. Most botanists accept it as native only to the northern half of the North Island. It is widely naturalised in lowland forests, from gardens and ‘conservation plantings’ well south of its presumed natural range. Seedlings can form dense carpets to the exclusion of other native regeneration (Costal et al. 2006). It is probably naturalised from deliberate Polynesian plantings on Raoul and the Chatham Islands.

Habitat

Common in mainly coastal situations, often a major component of coastal forest, rarely dominant. Occasionally found inland, and then often in association with Maori cultural deposits.

Features

Leafy canopy tree up 15 m tall. Trunk stout up to 1 m diam., Bark grey. Branches stout, erect to spreading. Petioles 10-15 mm long. Leaves dark green above paler beneath, thick, leathery, (50-)100-150(-200) x (30-)50-70 mm, glossy, elliptic to obovate-oblong, margins recurved. Inflorescence a stout, erect panicle up to 200 mm long, peduncles and pedicels short, somewhat fleshy, pale green. Flowers 4-5 mm diam., greenish-cream to off-white or pale yellow. Sepals suborbicular, petals 5, obovate-spathulate, alternating with 5 subpetaloid staminodes. Fruit an ellipsoid to ovoid drupe 25-40(-46) mm long, flesh pale yellow to orange. Endocarp a fibrous reticulum surrounding a smoother, harder papery layer beneath. This structure enclosing a single seed (kernel).

Similar taxa

Karaka is a very distinctive tree unlikely to be confused with any other indigenous, naturalised or planted exotic tree. The simply, leathery, dark green leaves and large orange drupes with their fibrous endocarp serve to immediately distinguish it. Some Botanic Gardens hold specimens of the other 4 species of the genus, vegetatively these look similar to karaka but their fruits are very different in colour, shape and size.

Flowering

August - November

Flower colours

Cream, Green

Fruiting

January - April

Life cycle

Fleshy drupes are dispersed by frugivory (Thorsen et al., 2009).

Propagation technique

Easily grown from fresh seed. Cuttings are very difficult to strike. Frost-tender and cold-sensitive when young.

Threats

Abundant and not threatened. Often naturalising in suitable habitats.

Etymology

corynocarpus: From the Greek koryne ‘club’ and –carpus ‘fruit’

laevigatus: Smooth

Where To Buy

Common in cultivation and widely sold both in New Zealand and around the world. A serious pest in the Hawaiian Islands. Because the fresh kernels of the species contain a lethal neurotoxin Karakin, and so the species has been banned from some amenity plantings and day care and kindergartens. The toxin, an alkaloid breaks down with exposure to UV light.

Poisonous plant

The fleshy outer part of the fruit can be eaten but the kernel in which the seed occur is poisonous (a neurotoxin known as karakin) unless detoxified through cooking. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and seizures. There may also be the onset of muscular spasms after several weeks. Click on this link for more information about Poisonous native plants.

Attribution

Fact Sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange (1 September 2004). Description based on Allan (1961).

References and further reading

Allan, H.H. 1961: Flora of New Zealand. Vol. 1. Wellington, Government Printer.

J.A. Costall , R.J. Carter , Y. Shimada , D. Anthony & G. L. Rapson (2006). The endemic tree Corynocarpus laevigatus (karaka) as a weedy invader in forest remnants of southern North Island, New Zealand, New Zealand Journal of Botany, 44:1, 5-22, DOI:10.1080/0028825X.2006.9513002

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

Please cite as: de Lange, P.J. (Year at time of access): Corynocarpus laevigatus Fact Sheet (content continuously updated). New Zealand Plant Conservation Network. https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora/species/corynocarpus-laevigatus/ (Date website was queried)

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