So excited to find this New Zealand native tree in bloom last week beside a track at Lake Rotoiti in the Nelson Lakes National Park, having previously only seen photos.

Kotukutuku is the largest species in the Fuchsia genus – size varies widely depending on growing conditions, anything from 4m to 12m-plus – and was identified for Western science in 1769 by the botanists accompanying Captain James Cook, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander. Its Maori name includes tukutuku, or ‘letting go’, which may refer to the tree’s peeling bark or its semi-deciduous habit, see more below.

Tree fuchsia is found throughout New Zealand and in cooler and cold areas its leaves will turn yellow in autumn and fall. It also has a bright, orange-brown bark that peels off the trunk revealing green streaks underneath. This combination of leafless branches and trunk colour may lead you to believe you’re looking at a dead tree, especially when it’s surrounded by the verdant greenery of our native bush. Unfortunately, in areas where there isn’t predator control possums can quickly strip a tree bare of new shoots and leaves, thus killing it.

Flowers, which come straight off the trunk and branches, open greenish streaked with dark purple and, once pollinated, end up a deep red. They have distinct length variations of styles and filaments to ensure cross-pollination by honey-bees and nectar-eating birds, and have the most amazing blue pollen. In 1882 William Colenso recorded that young Maori liked to use the pollen “to adorn their faces”.

Flowers are followed by purple berries, known as konini by Maori, who collected and ate them and also used them for dye, and early settlers who used them for jam. The berries are also a good source of food for birds.

This American website says both fuchsia flowers and berries are edible (even our garden hybrids) and includes recipes for fuchsia jelly, fuchsia jam and fuchsia berry scones.

The following comment is from Gardening with New Zealand Shrubs, Plants & Trees by Muriel Fisher, E Satchell and Janet Watkins (1988). The ‘I’ isn’t identified.

Throughout this book I have purposely omitted to record the value of the timber of the various trees referred to. However, the wood of the tree fuchsia is said to be very durable but, because of its gnarled trunk, it has been passed by. What a tragedy more of our trees do not have gnarled trunks!

The wood is extremely difficult to burn.