Species
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Dacrycarpus dacrydioides (A.Rich.) de Laub.

New Zealand dacryberry, White Pine, kahika, kahikatea

Climate known 79 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

Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, commonly known as kahikatea and white pine, is a coniferous tree endemic to New Zealand. A podocarp, it is New Zealand's tallest tree, gaining heights of 60 metres over a life span of 600 years. It was first described botanically by the French botanist Achille Richard in 1832 as Podocarpus dacrydioides, and was given its current binomial name Dacrycarpus dacrydioides in 1969 by the American botanist David de Laubenfels. Analysis of DNA has confirmed its evolutionary relationship with other species in the genera Dacrycarpus and Dacrydium.

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

About the genus · Dacrycarpus

Dacrycarpus is a genus of conifers in the family Podocarpaceae. The genus includes nine species of dioecious trees and shrubs to 55–60 metres (180–197 ft) in height.

Text from Wikipedia, “Dacrycarpus”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Podocarpaceae
Described by
(A.Rich.) de Laub.
Native to
New Zealand North, New Zealand South
Wild records
1861 in range· 411 open

At a glance

Warmest month
20°C
Feb, mean day; nights 13 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1651mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jul 171 mm (CHELSA)
Light
10–41DLI
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 (November to June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1651 mm a year, wettest July at 171 mm, driest February at 105 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 2.9 °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 Dacrycarpus dacrydioides (A.Rich.) DeLaub.; Dacrydium excelsum D.Don; Dacrydium ferrugineum Van Houtte; Dacrydium ferrugineum Van Houtte ex Gordon & Glend.; Dacrydium ferrugineum VanHoutte and 9 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (November to 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 (1197 mm of 1651 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 9.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to 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 1651 mm a year, wettest July at 171 mm, driest February at 105 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1651 mm a year at the habitat, 1197 mm of it May to December. Wettest month July at 171 mm, driest February at 105 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1155 mm to 4189 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 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 41 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 8, 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 2.9 °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 2.9 °C, the absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 5 frost nights in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 22.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 4.2 °C in July (across the envelope cells 1.2 °C to 9.1 °C), warmest day 19.8 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 2.9 °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: 63 to 65% 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 10 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Feb; mean night from 4 °C in Jul to 13 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1651 mm of rain a year, most in Jul. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 992 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -1.1 °C and the 99th-percentile day 22.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-5°10°15°20°25°frost22.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)-1.1° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 10–41RH 63–65 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 992 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 / 18–2218 / 16–2115 / 13–1813 / 11–1611 / 8–1410 / 7–1311 / 8–1412 / 11–1514 / 12–1616 / 14–1818 / 16–20
Night °C12 / 10–1613 / 10–1711 / 9–159 / 6–147 / 4–125 / 2–104 / 1–95 / 2–96 / 3–107 / 5–119 / 7–1311 / 9–15
Rain mm110 / 72–371105 / 73–276115 / 82–362124 / 87–312143 / 100–339168 / 112–350171 / 109–278157 / 101–307146 / 95–367145 / 93–404126 / 83–353141 / 90–448
DLI41 / 38–4535 / 33–3828 / 26–3120 / 17–2213 / 11–1610 / 8–1312 / 10–1417 / 15–1924 / 21–2631 / 28–3438 / 35–4140 / 37–44
RH %63 / 60–6664 / 60–6664 / 61–6764 / 61–6865 / 62–6965 / 62–7065 / 62–6965 / 62–6965 / 61–6864 / 60–6863 / 60–6664 / 60–67

Each figure is the median across the 992 grid cells holding the 1845 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 2677:6980 (-43.875, 169.025). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.1 °C, 1st-percentile night 2.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 22.7 °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 992 distinct grid cells holding the 1845 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2677:6980 (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 -44.00_168.750, lapse-corrected -358 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 11 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
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-37.786, 175.289 · in the densest population, 972 records (52% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1861 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 411 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 160 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 16 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 inside the densest 2° block of the 1861 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Dacrycarpus dacrydioidesDacrycarpus dacrydioidesDacrycarpus dacrydioidesDacrycarpus dacrydioidesDacrycarpus dacrydioidesDacrycarpus dacrydioidesDacrycarpus dacrydioidesDacrycarpus dacrydioides

Photographs: (c) Jacqui Geux, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Joe Potter Butler, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Sean T, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Sarah Richardson, 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 Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

An evaluation of errors in tree age estimates based on increment cores in kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides)
Richard P. Duncan (1989) · UC Research Repository (University of Canterbury)
Competition and the Coexistence of Species in a Mixed Podocarp Stand
Richard P. Duncan (1991) · Journal of Ecology
The importance of xylem constraints in the distribution of conifer species
Timothy J. Brodribb, Robert S. Hill (1999) · New Phytologist
Late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation history, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand
Matt S. McGlone, A. F. Mark, Derek Stuart Bell (1995) · Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Late Holocene forest disturbance in Gisborne, New Zealand: A comparison of terrestrial and marine pollen records
Janet M. Wilmshurst, Dennis N. Eden, P. C. Froggatt (1999) · New Zealand Journal of Botany
Early Miocene flora of the Manuherikia Group, New Zealand. 2. Conifers
Mike Pole (1992) · Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Composition and structure of forest overwhelmed at Pureora, central North Island, New Zealand, during the Taupo eruption (c. AD 130)
Beverley R. Clarkson, Rajni N. Patel, Bruce D. Clarkson (1988) · Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand
Inaha Terrace deposits: A late Quaternary terrestrial record in South Taranaki, New Zealand
Matthew S. McGlone, V. E. Neall, Brad Pillans (1984) · New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics

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.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (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 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried 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 2026-09-20; 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 27 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.