The curator of New Zealand’s arboretum says it “breaks my heart” a tree rarely found in the country was felled by Cyclone Vaianu over the weekend.
The 9.45m Eucalyptus parvula specimen was native to New South Wales and is typically found 1000 metres above sea level.
This one outside Mangapapa Church in Gisborne had not only survived but thrived in the seaside city.
While small specimens appear to be available in New Zealand through online nursery stories, no other fully mature eucalyptus parvula are recorded in the voluntarily updated NZ tree register.
In strong winds on Sunday, which reached 100km/h-plus in parts of the district, the tree was toppled, breaking part of the nearby concrete.
Church elder Stewart Patrick, from the Mangapapa Church assets team, said a neighbour let a member of the church know the tree had fallen.
“Fortunately, we had cancelled our services today as it came down around 11.40am, around the time folk would have been leaving,” Patrick told the Gisborne Herald on Sunday. “It was a great call that we did that.”
Menno Kluiters, now curator at Eastwoodhill Arboretum, took note of the tree in 2024 when he was a consulting arborist and had it identified from samples.
“That small tree stood out when I drove past one day and I stopped and had a look.”
He waited until it had flowered and sent photos to renowned botanist Mike Wilcox in Auckland.
“He got all excited and he thought it was Eucalyptus parvula, a small-leaved eucalyptus.
“It is only native to a small area in the mountains of New South Wales, so he asked me to send some cuttings and flowers.
“He identified it as indeed what he thought it was.
“For a guy like that to get excited is pretty special.”
Cuttings from the tree are kept at the Auckland Museum herbarium, while another sample is at Scion Research in Rotorua.
Kluiters said news of the tree falling “breaks my heart”.
“Especially because it is such a rare tree.”
Kluiters was not aware of any other mature specimens in the entire country, as there are no other Eucalyptus parvula on the New Zealand tree register.
“That makes it even more of a mystery – where on earth did it come from?”
It may not be the end of the tree’s presence in Gisborne, however, as Kluiters intends to retrieve more seeds or cuttings with the hope of growing another at Eastwoodhill.
“I am on the lookout for a tree like that to add to the collection, but there is a lot of work to be done.”