Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A coniferous tree, Podocarpus Totara, the most valuable timber-tree of New Zealand.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A coniferous tree (Podocarpus totara), next to the kauri the most valuable timber tree of New Zealand. Its hard reddish wood is used for furniture and building, esp. in wharves, bridges, etc. Also mahogany pine.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun valuable timber tree of New Zealand yielding hard reddish wood used for furniture and bridges and wharves

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The track, a seldom-used blazed trail, led steeply up the north side of the valley through thick silver beech forest with little understorey and a scattering of totara.

    Archive 2007-01-01 2007

  • Tall podocarp trees (rimu, miro, Hall's totara) then succeed and the end point of this sequence can be found on the higher glacial outwash surfaces (around 25,000 years old); here the extremely leached, infertile soils can only support a stunted heath and bog vegetation.

    Te Wahipounamu (South-West New Zealand World Heritage Area), New Zealand 2008

  • Matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia) and totara (Podocarpus totara) were also abundant in these areas but are now restricted to two main remnants (totaling 6 km2) in the Waiho and Whataroa Valleys.

    Westland temperate forests 2008

  • Possums have caused the widespread death of kamahi and rata in lowland forests and the death of kaikawaka (Libocedrus bidwillii) and Hall's totara (Podocarpus hallii) in the southern ranges.

    Northland temperate forests 2008

  • The common podocarps are: rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), thin-barked totara (Podocarpus hallii), miro (Prumnopitys ferruginea), and kohekoe (Dysoxylum spectabile).

    Northland temperate kauri forests 2008

  • A small number may have developed from remnant populations of endemic cold-tolerant plants (for example, the snow totara (Podocarpus nivalis)).

    Southland montane grasslands 2008

  • Prior to human arrival the drier central regions of Otago probably had a cover of low conifer-broadleaf forest made up of species like mountain toatoa (Phyllocladus alpinus), Hall's totara (Podocarpus hallii), broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis), and kanuka (Kunzea ericoides).

    Cantebury-Otago tussock grasslands 2007

  • The foothills from north to south were covered in beech forest (Nothofagus spp.), while the plains were covered with mixed beech-podocarp forest dominated by matai (Prumnoptitys taxifolia) and totara (Podocarpus totara).

    Cantebury-Otago tussock grasslands 2007

  • An icy sweat broke out on his body as he careened down a hill, scraping his back on the serrated trunk of a totara tree.

    Once An Angel Medeiros, Teresa, 1962- 1993

  • There are traces all over the hills of vast forests having once existed; chiefly of totara, a sort of red pine, and those about us are scattered with huge logs of this valuable wood, all bearing traces of the action of fire; but shepherds, and explorers on expeditions, looking for country, have gradually consumed them for fuel, till not many pieces remain except on the highest and most inaccessible ranges.

    Station Life in New Zealand 1871

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