This week’s plant of the week is a New Zealand native that many people do not recognise as such. It’s really really common and has been planted as an ornamental all over the place, especially on some of the newer streets where they have finally realised that planting exotics is not that good when you have so many beautiful natives to put in.
.
Titoki – Alectryon excelsus – New Zealand Oak/New Zealand Ash
The Alectryon genus is widespread, extending from the Asian Palaeotropics, through New Guinea and Australia and out into the Western Pacific. Classicists among you will realise that Alectryon is ancient Greek for rooster, which refers to the shape of the fruit, which apparently look like they have a rooster’s comb, but I’m yet to be convinced. One of my samples in Western NSW was also of the Alectryon genus, but looks nothing like Titoki save its fruit, so obviously a very morphologically diverse genus!
Anyway, I just love this species – its so big and grand when it’s fully grown, and it can live for hundreds of years. I think the New Zealand Oak descriptor is very apt.
I just wanted to let you know that I linked to this post from Berry Go Round, a new plant-focussed blog carnival.
[...] Aristolochia elegans. Kallen at Biojournalism welcomes the flowers of Spring. The Reluctant Botanist profiles Alectryon excelsus also known as Titoki or the New Zealand Oak in his “Plant of the Week” [...]