Where found:

• Lowland and montane forest
  
• Up to 600m
  

• One of our most ancient trees
  
• The juvenile form is open branched and forms a pyramid shaped tree, finally forming a tall straight trunked (up to 1.5m diameter) adult tree with a spreading crown with drooping branchlets
  
• The juvenile foliage (4-7mm long x 0.5-1mm wide) is light green but may turn bronze in winter
  
• Adult leaves (2-3mm long) are more rigid often with bronze coloured tips, as the tree ages the leaves become more scale like
  
• Sets seed every 5-6 years, male cones are a light yellow colour and the female cones are red, the sexes occur on separate trees
  
• The bark is stringy and usually pimpled, peeling off in long thick flakes
  
• Next to kauri, rimu is the best known of NZ timber trees