Where found:

• Swamp forests, dominant tree in swampy areas but will grow on drier sites
  
• Only a few stands of pure kahikatea forest remain, but fairly common as scattered trees
  
• Common in the canopy of the forest on the lower eastern flanks of Mt Taranaki/Egmont about the Manganui River
  
• Up to 600 metres
  

• Tall canopy tree with a trunk up to 1.6m diameter, the young form is cone like, the crown opens up in the final stages of growth
  
• Juvenile leaves are long and narrow (7mm x 1mm) and arranged in two rows along the stem
  
• Adult leaves are scale like and up to 2mm long
  
• Females have red berry-like flowers and the males have faint orange pollen cones
  
• The bark on a young tree is banded, become flaky on a mature tree
  
• The wood is prone to attack by wood-boring insects