Prumnopitys taxifolia (D. Don) de Laubenfels
(syn. Podocarpus spicatus Mirb.)
Family: Podocarpaceae
Softwood
Country of Origin: New Zealand

The tree:
Matai is a robust tree up to 25 m in height with a trunk up to 1.3 m in diameter and a broad crown held on stout, erect, spreading branches. The largest specimens are found in the central North Island; although it should be noted that big, over-mature trees may have a hollow, or pipe, up the centre. Matai has smooth dark grey “hammer-marked” bark with loosely adhering rounded flakes. It occurs all over New Zealand, but it is most common in the central North Island, only locally abundant in the South Island, and extremely rare on Steward Island.

The Wood:
The dry heartwood of matai is straw yellow to chestnut yellow, with an occasional reddish tinge. On exposure to air it darkens to a deep red-brown. The sapwood is white. It is a straight-grained timber with a fine, even texture. It is similar to rimu at first glance but, with experience, can be distinguished from that species by its slightly more distinct growth rings. Also, matai does not have a well-defined intermediate zone between the sapwood and the heartwood, as rimu does; and matai gives off a smell “somewhat like fresh stable manure” when first sawn, whereas rimu is more kind to the senses. Matai is one of the slowest growing of our native softwoods, averaging 40 growth rings in 25 mm. Along with kauri and totara, matai is — or was, since the
amount cut today is infinitesimal — one of New Zealand’s finest native timber species. Capable of being polished to the most silken of finishes, the heartwood is harder than kauri and more dimensionally stable than any of our other native softwoods.