Agathis australis

Botanical Description

Agathis australis is an evergreen tree with a narrowly columnar crown when young, becoming globular or flat-topped with age; it can grow 30 - 50 metres tall. The straight, cylindrical bole shows virtually no taper, it can be free of branches for up to 15 metres and 100 - 400cm in diameter. The spreading crown of old trees, relative to their trunk, is immense; it is rather open as the tree ages and is supported on huge branches - the first or lower of these branches can be up to 200cm through where it leaves the trunk[ 329 Title The Gymnosperm Database Publication Author Website http://www.conifers.org/index.htm Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description A vast amount of information on conifers and families of gymnosperms. ]. The kauri was at one time very highly prized as the source of a high quality timber and also a high quality resin. As a result, the tree was greatly over-exploited. There are too few large trees remaining for commercial exploitation, and most of these are in protected areas. Modern exploitation is largely confined to subfossil deposits from ancient forests where a high quality timber and resin are used mainly for arts and crafts.