Species
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Pittosporum tenuifolium Gaertn.

Black Matipo, Kohuhu, Kohuhu (EN), Tawhiwhi

Climate known 60 photographs
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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

Pittosporum tenuifolium is a small evergreen tree endemic to New Zealand – growing up to 10 m (33 ft) – commonly known as kōhūhū and black matipo, and by other Māori names kohukohu and tawhiwhi. Its small, very dark, reddish-purple flowers generally go unnoticed, and are scented only at night. The Latin tenuifolium means "slender-leaved".

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

About the genus · Pittosporum

Pittosporum is a genus of about 250 species of flowering plants in the family Pittosporaceae. Plants in the genus Pittosporum are shrubs or trees with leaves arranged alternately along the stems. The flowers are arranged singly or in cymes, with white to yellow petals fused at the base forming a short tube, with stamens that are free from each other. More on Wikipedia ›

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

Family
Pittosporaceae
Described by
Gaertn.
Native to
New Zealand North, New Zealand South
Wild records
1257 in range· 443 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Jan, mean day; nights 12 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1341mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 143 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–42DLI
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 1341 mm a year, wettest July at 143 mm, driest February at 86 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 42 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.4 °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 Pittosporum bidwillianum Regel; Pittosporum colensoi Kirk; Pittosporum colensoi Naudin; Pittosporum colensoi var. fasciculatum (Hook.fil.) Cheeseman; Pittosporum enderi Regel and 18 more.

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 (964 mm of 1341 mm) takes 8 months, April to October and December. Mean temperature moves 9.6 °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 1341 mm a year, wettest July at 143 mm, driest February at 86 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1341 mm a year at the habitat, 964 mm of it April to October and December. Wettest month July at 143 mm, driest February at 86 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 752 mm to 2235 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: 10 to 42 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 42 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 7, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

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 -1.4 °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 -1.4 °C, the absolute minimum -5.9 °C, about 17 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.2 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.4 °C in July (across the envelope cells -1.9 °C to 9.1 °C), warmest day 19.8 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.4 °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 64% 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 9 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan; mean night from 3 °C in Jul to 12 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1341 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 669 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -5.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.2 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°frost30.2° 99th-percentile day (undated)-5.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250mm rainDLI 10–42RH 61–64 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 669 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 °C20 / 17–2220 / 17–2218 / 15–2015 / 12–1813 / 9–1610 / 5–149 / 5–1310 / 6–1312 / 9–1514 / 11–1616 / 13–1818 / 15–20
Night °C12 / 9–1612 / 9–1711 / 7–159 / 5–146 / 2–124 / -1–103 / -2–94 / -1–95 / 1–107 / 3–119 / 5–1311 / 7–15
Rain mm91 / 54–16286 / 56–132100 / 60–154103 / 55–174119 / 68–185135 / 66–216143 / 72–215129 / 68–203112 / 52–206116 / 64–215100 / 58–180107 / 62–197
DLI42 / 38–4536 / 32–3828 / 24–3120 / 16–2213 / 10–1610 / 7–1311 / 9–1417 / 14–1925 / 21–2633 / 29–3439 / 36–4241 / 38–44
RH %62 / 58–6562 / 60–6562 / 60–6663 / 60–6763 / 61–6964 / 61–7064 / 61–6963 / 61–6963 / 60–6862 / 59–6761 / 59–6662 / 59–66

Each figure is the median across the 669 grid cells holding the 1236 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 2671:7054 (-43.575, 172.725). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -5.9 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.2 °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 669 distinct grid cells holding the 1236 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2671:7054 (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 -43.50_172.500, lapse-corrected +64 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 140 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, New Zealand South· introduced: Great Britain, Ireland, Tasmania, California
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-43.58, 172.633 · in the densest population, 624 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1257 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 443 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker in the same place. 514 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 21 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 1257 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Pittosporum tenuifoliumPittosporum tenuifoliumPittosporum tenuifoliumPittosporum tenuifoliumPittosporum tenuifoliumPittosporum tenuifoliumPittosporum tenuifoliumPittosporum tenuifolium

Photographs: (c) Saryu Mae 前 朝琉, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) John Barkla, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Penelope Noel Gillette, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3); (c) Oscar Dove, some rights reserved (CC BY) (3).

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 Pittosporum tenuifolium, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Fungal Planet description sheets: 951–1041
Crous Pw, Wingfield Mj, L. Lombard, Francois Roets (2019) · Persoonia - Molecular Phylogeny and Evolution of Fungi
Ecological Restoration of Native Forest at Aratiatia, North Island, New Zealand
Mark C. Smale, Patrick T. Whaley, P.N. Smale (2001) · Restoration Ecology
Oleanane-type glycosides from Pittosporum tenuifolium “variegatum” and P. tenuifolium “gold star”
Mayra Rengifo Carrillo, Anne‐Claire Mitaine‐Offer, Tomofumi Miyamoto, Chiaki Tanaka (2017) · Phytochemistry
Potential Use of Biosolids to Reforest Degraded Areas with New Zealand Native Vegetation
María Jesús Gutiérrez Ginés, Brett Robinson, J. Esperschuetz, Engracia Madejón (2017) · Journal of Environmental Quality
Establishing native plants in a weedy riparian environment
Simeon J. Smaill, N. J. Ledgard, E.R. Langer, David Henley (2011) · New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research
Direct seeding of indigenous tree and shrub species into New Zealand hill country pasture
Mike Dodd, I.L. Power (2007) · Ecological Management & Restoration

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 Pittosporum 5 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 36 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.