Species
+

Metrosideros excelsa Sol. ex Gaertn.

New Zealand Bottlebrush, New Zealand Christmas tree, New Zealand Christmastree, Pohutukawa

Climate known 64 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Pōhutukawa, also known as the New Zealand Christmas tree, or iron tree, is a coastal evergreen tree in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae, that produces a brilliant display of red flowers, each consisting of a mass of stamens. The pōhutukawa is one of twelve Metrosideros species endemic to New Zealand. Renowned for its vibrant colour and its ability to survive even perched on rocky, precarious cliffs, it has found an important place in New Zealand culture for its strength and beauty, and is regarded as a chiefly tree by Māori.

Text from Wikipedia, “Pōhutukawa”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Metrosideros

Metrosideros is a genus of approximately 60 trees, shrubs, and vines in the family Myrtaceae, mostly found in the Pacific region. Most of the tree forms are small, but some are exceptionally large, the New Zealand species in particular. The name derives from the Ancient Greek metra or "heartwood" and sideron or "iron". More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Metrosideros”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Myrtaceae
Described by
Sol. ex Gaertn.
Native to
New Zealand North
Wild records
1297 in range· 514 open

At a glance

Warmest month
21°C
Feb, mean day; nights 17 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1392mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 161 mm (CHELSA)
Light
13–43DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to April and June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1392 mm a year, wettest July at 161 mm, driest January at 87 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 43 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Metrosideros excelsa Sol.; Metrosideros florida var. aurata J.R.Duncan & V.C.Davies; Metrosideros tomentosa A.Rich.; Nania tomentosa (A.Rich.) Kuntze.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (October to April and June in the northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (1017 mm of 1392 mm) takes 8 months, April to October and December. Mean temperature moves 7.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: October to April and June.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1392 mm a year, wettest July at 161 mm, driest January at 87 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1392 mm a year at the habitat, 1017 mm of it April to October and December. Wettest month July at 161 mm, driest January at 87 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1178 mm to 1896 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 43 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 13 to 43 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 10, the highest 90th-percentile month 46).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 8.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 8.9 °C, the absolute minimum 7.3 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 23.9 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 9.8 °C in July (across the envelope cells 6.4 °C to 12.0 °C), warmest day 21.2 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 8.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 62% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 13 °C in Jul to 21 °C in Feb; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 17 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1392 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 449 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.3 °C and the 99th-percentile day 23.9 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°23.9° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.3° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 13–43RH 61–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 449 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C21 / 19–2221 / 19–2220 / 18–2118 / 16–1916 / 14–1714 / 12–1513 / 11–1514 / 11–1515 / 13–1516 / 14–1717 / 15–1819 / 17–20
Night °C17 / 14–1817 / 14–1916 / 13–1814 / 11–1613 / 9–1511 / 7–1310 / 6–1210 / 7–1211 / 8–1212 / 9–1313 / 11–1515 / 13–17
Rain mm87 / 71–11890 / 72–123100 / 81–143110 / 89–161128 / 111–170153 / 125–203161 / 137–216140 / 118–193118 / 100–159106 / 89–15698 / 79–138101 / 88–151
DLI43 / 41–4638 / 36–3930 / 29–3222 / 20–2316 / 14–1713 / 10–1414 / 12–1519 / 17–2026 / 24–2834 / 32–3640 / 38–4243 / 41–46
RH %62 / 60–6462 / 61–6461 / 60–6461 / 60–6462 / 60–6562 / 60–6562 / 61–6562 / 61–6562 / 61–6562 / 60–6462 / 60–6462 / 61–65

Each figure is the median across the 449 grid cells holding the 1275 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2538:7093 (-36.925, 174.675). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.3 °C, 1st-percentile night 8.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 23.9 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 449 distinct grid cells holding the 1275 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2538:7093 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -37.00_174.375, lapse-corrected +21 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 40 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Zealand North· introduced: Azores, Madeira, Norfolk Is., Tristan da Cunha
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-36.827, 174.782 · in the densest population, 829 records (64% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1297 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 514 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 1 km away. 293 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 22 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1297 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Metrosideros excelsaMetrosideros excelsaMetrosideros excelsaMetrosideros excelsaMetrosideros excelsaMetrosideros excelsaMetrosideros excelsaMetrosideros excelsa

Photographs: (c) Leon Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) wild_wind, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Michael Keith, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Metrosideros excelsa, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fungal Planet description sheets: 1042–1111
P.W. Crous, Michael J. Wingfield, Yit‐Heng Chooi, Cameron L. M. Gilchrist (2020) · Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
The roles of lizards in New Zealand plant reproductive strategies
Anthony H. Whitaker (1987) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Riding the ice age El Niño? Pacific biogeography and evolution of Metrosideros subg. Metrosideros (Myrtaceae) inferred from nuclear ribosomal DNA
Shane D. Wright, Catherine G. Yong, J. W. Dawson, Danielle J. Whittaker (2000) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Diet and nectarivorous foraging behaviour of the short‐tailed bat (Mystacina tuberculata)
A. M. Arkins, Andrew Winnington, Sandra Anderson, Mick N. Clout (1999) · Journal of Zoology
Vegetation decline following recent eruptions on White Island (Whakaari), Bay of Plenty, New Zealand
Bruce D. Clarkson, Beverley R. Clarkson (1994) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Low outcrossing rates and shift in pollinators in New Zealand pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa; Myrtaceae)
Gabriele Schmidt‐Adam, Andrew G. Young, Brian G. Murray (2000) · American Journal of Botany
The effect of salinity and high boron on growth, photosynthetic activity and mineral contents of two ornamental shrubs
S. Bañón, J. Miralles, J. Ochoa, M.J. Sánchez-Blanco (2012) · Horticultural Science
New Chorological Data for the Italian Vascular Flora
Leonardo Rosati, Simonetta Fascetti, Vito Antonio Romano, Giovanna Potenza (2020) · Diversity

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Metrosideros 2 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 43 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.