Description
– Mature kauri trees have large trunks with little or no branching below the crown.
– Young trees are conical in shape and develop a rounded or irregularly shaped crown as they mature.
– The bark is smooth, light grey to grey-brown, and peels into irregular flakes on mature trees.
– Branch structure is often horizontal or ascending.
– Juvenile leaves are larger than adult leaves, varying in shape from ovate to lanceolate.
Uses
– Kauri timber is straight-grained, of fine quality, and has exceptional strength-to-weight ratio and rot resistance.
– It is used for yacht hull construction, guitars, ukuleles, and some Go boards.
– Kauri species in New Zealand were used for shipbuilding, house construction, furniture making, and more.
– The hard resin of kauri wood was traditionally used by Māori for wooden weapons and barkcloth beaters.
– Kauri gum, a resin produced by the tree, has various uses.
Evolutionary history
– Agathis is more closely related to Wollemia than to Araucaria within the Araucariaceae family.
– The oldest fossils of Agathis date back to the Paleocene, approximately 64.67–63.49 million years ago.
– Fossil remains of Agathis have been found in Patagonia, Australia, New Zealand, and Egypt.
– Agathis-like leaves are known from the Late Jurassic in Australia, but their classification in this genus is uncertain.
– Phylogenomic studies have revealed gene duplications and conflicts underlying phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms.
External links
– Wikimedia Commons has media related to Agathis.
– Wikispecies provides information related to Agathis.
– The Gymnosperm Database has information on Agathis.
– Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand features a section on Kauri forests.
– Threatened Conifers of the World includes information on Agathis.
Additional resources
– A reconstruction of the paleoecology and environmental dynamics of the Bahariya Formation of Egypt is available on ResearchGate.
– The classification of Archaeplastida or Plantae includes Agathis.
– The Southern Conifers in Time and Space article in the Australian Journal of Botany provides insights on Agathis.
– Biogeography of Araucariaceae is discussed in the book Araucarian Forests.
– The Systematics of Agathis provides detailed information on the genus (archived copy). Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agathis
