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  4. Pittosporum kirkii

Pittosporum kirkii

Mt Taranaki.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 01/11/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Foliage.<br>Photographer: Ewen Cameron, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
At Mt Kaipawa, Coromandel (December).<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Mount Kaipawa, Coromandel.<br>Photographer: John Smith-Dodsworth, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Pittosporum kirkii.<br>Photographer: Bec Stanley, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0'>CC BY-SA</a>.
Sep 2006.<br>Photographer: Peter J. de Lange, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Mt Taranaki.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Seed pods, Mt Taranaki.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 01/11/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Mt Taranaki.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 01/11/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Seed pods, Mt Taranaki.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 01/11/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Seed pods, Mt Taranaki.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 01/11/2008, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Purangi, Taranaki. Dec 1968.<br>Photographer: Colin C. Ogle, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Immature fruit. Purangi, Taranaki. Dec 1968.<br>Photographer: Colin C. Ogle, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Capsules - Waipoua Forest.<br>Photographer: Kirsty Myron, Licence: All rights reserved.
Pittosporum kirkii.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Pittosporum kirkii.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Pittosporum kirkii.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Pittosporum kirkii.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Pittosporum kirkii.<br>Photographer: Mike Thorsen, Licence: All rights reserved.
Garden plant, New Plymouth.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 31/12/2016, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Garden plant, New Plymouth.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 31/12/2016, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
Garden plant, New Plymouth.<br>Photographer: Bill Clarkson, Date taken: 31/12/2016, Licence: <a target='_blank' href='https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0'>CC BY-NC</a>.
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Common name

Kirk’s kōhūhū, thick-leaved kohukohu

Synonyms

None

Family

Pittosporaceae

Authority

Pittosporum kirkii Hook.f.

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.

PITKIR

Chromosome number

2n = 24

Current conservation status

  • Conservation status of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants, 2017

The threat classification 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) – more information about this can be found on the NZTCS website 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. Please note, threat classifications are often suggested by authors when publications fall between NZTCS assessment periods – a suggested threat classification status has not been assessed by the NZTCS panel.

Source: NZTCS and licensed by DOC for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence.

2017 | At Risk – Declining | Qualifiers: DP, PD

Previous conservation statuses

2012 | At Risk – Declining | Qualifiers: DP

2009 | At Risk – Declining | Qualifiers: DP

2004 | Serious Decline

Brief description

Shrub often growing on other trees and bearing narrow leathery thick leaves that are widest towards the tip and with flattened hard capsules. Leaves 5-10cm long by 2-3cm wide. Flowers yellow, in cluster at tip of twigs. Fruit 2.5-4cm long, splitting into two showing the black seeds in yellow pith.

Distribution

Endemic to the northern half or the North Island, from Karikari Peninsula south of the northern reaches of the Whanganui River and west to Taranaki Mounga (Mt Egmont National Park).

Habitat

Usually epiphytic, rarely terrestrial in coastal to montane forest.

Features

A small, gynodioecious, openly-branched shrub to 4 m tall with stout, purplish branches. Leaves are crowded towards the tips of the branch on 10 mm long stalks. The leaf blade is thick and fleshy, and broadens towards a rounded tip; leaves are 50–100 mm long by 20–30 mm wide. Flowers are either solitary or in clusters of up to four at the tips of branches, bright yellow and appear in November. Fruit are oval, woody capsules up to 40 mm long that split in half to reveal black seeds sitting in yellow sticky pulp, and appear in January.

Similar taxa

Pittosporum cornifolium, another epiphyte, has leaves that are usually shorter, broader and much thinner, and the inside of the capsules are shiny and bright orange. Kirk’s kohuhu could also be confused with Kirks tree daisy (Brachyglottis kirkii var. kirkii) but that species has white daisy-like flowers and dandelion-like wind-borne seeds.

Flowering

October to December

Flower colours

Yellow

Fruiting

January to May

Propagation technique

Easy from fresh seed. Can also be grown from semi hardwood cuttings but slow to strike.

Threats

Forest clearance, possum browse.

Etymology

pittosporum: Pitch seed

kirkii: After Thomas Kirk (18 January 1828 - 8 March 1898), a NZ botanist and lecturer in natural sciences and regarded as a leader of botanical enquiry in NZ for over three decades. One of his most significant publications was Forest flora of NZ (1889) but he also contributed over 130 papers to the Transactions and Proceedings of the NZ Institute and other journals.

Attribution

Fact sheet prepared for NZPCN by P.J. de Lange 30 August 2006. Description adapted from Cooper (1956).

References and further reading

Cooper, R.C. 1956: The Australian and New Zealand species of Pittosporum. Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden 43: 87-188

NZPCN Fact Sheet citation

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

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