Miro

Scientific name: Pectinopitys ferruginea
English name: Brown pine

Tree (over 15m) - native to the Wellington Region
Suits: damp, shade, partial shade, sunny, shelter, coastal forest garden, wetlands and water features

About Miro

A very beautiful tree which should be more widely grown. Miro grows up to 25 metres tall with a trunk to 1 metre in diameter, forming a round-headed crown. Juvenile individuals look like smaller versions of adults with dark green, feathery, needle-like leaves flattened into two rows (similar to the weedy jew). Like matai, the bark and trunk of more mature miro trees flakes off to leave a distinctive "hammer mark pattern" in a dark grey or grey-brown colouration, however not as beautifully patterned as matai.

The flowers are on separate male and female trees if pollination is to occur. Each year miro produces a crop of fleshy, bright red plum like fruit in autumn to early winter that has taken a year to ripe. The fruit tastes and smell strongly of turpentine and is sticky when flesh is removed. The fruit is a important and favourite food of the kereru, kaka and kokako. The seeds are then dispersed by the birds, passing the seeds in its droppings.

Miro seeds are very slow but easily grown from fresh seed their germination and may take up between 2 to 5 years.

Provides for birds