CYPRESS PINE

Single stemmed tree to 20m with dark bark. Has become a pest in some areas and has been known to cause acute hay fever for some. A valuable timber in building industry, resistant to termites, with many uses.

Leaves - needle like, similar to Cupressus varieties.

Flowers - in catkins.

Fruit - silver-grey cone typical of pine trees.

Flowering spring to early summer.

Indigenous uses - medicines, leaves used as an antiseptic or soaked and mixed with fat to make an ointment, resin used as a type of glue, teething sticks made for babies and fish spears also made from long branches.