NOTE - THIS PROTO-PAGE IS STILL IN THE VERY EARLIEST STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION!

The Northern rätä (Metrosideros robusta) is a huge forest tree that usually begins life perching on a host tree, which it eventually engulfs with its aereal roots and replaces. When mature it will be 25 metres or so high. The Southern rätä (which is also found naturally in the north of the North Island, but is more common in the South Island) is a smaller, more conventional tree (i.e. it starts off as a seedling in the ground).

The flower of the (initially epiphytic) rätä is known as kahika -- q.v.