NEW ZEALAND PLANTS PART 2 LANCEWOOD

Latin - Pseudopanax crassifolius

Maori - Kapuka or papauma

70% of a deer’s total annual consumption is made up of woody plants and that 70% consists of seven main preferred species. At the top of that preferred list at 22% is broadleaf while lancewood came in second at 14%. This was a surprise to me as lancewood just doesn’t seem like a nice, succulent, nutritious food source. But there you have it … the deer obviously know something I don’t.

Lancewood has several very distinctive identifying features. At first glance the most obvious one is a very straight and slim trunk. A closer look at the stem reveals a second physical attribute, that of lovely, fluted ribs and channels running length ways up the tree. These two physical characteristics make the lancewood ideal for use as a walking stick or ‘hill stick’ – consistently straight as well as textured for good grip but not so much as to be uncomfortable in the hand.

These types of hill sticks have been used by