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Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, coarsely toothed or entire. Flowers hermaphrodite, regular, arranged in axillary or terminal dense-flowered racemes; pedicels in pairs. Perianth cylindrical; the segments at first cohering by their margins, but ultimately separating and revolute to the base. Stamens affixed above the middle of the segments; filaments very short; anthers long, linear, acute. Hypogyuous glands 4, distinct. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; style long, straight, linear-clavate; ovules 4. Follicles coriaceous, 1-celled, 4-seeded. Seeds winged at the top.

1. K. excelsa, R. Br. in Trans. Linn. Soc. x. (1810) 194, t. 2.—A tall slender tapering tree 60–90 ft. high, with the narrow fastigiate mode of growth of a Lombardy poplar; trunk 2–4 ft. diam.; bark dark-brown or almost black; branches erect, the younger ones angled and clothed with rusty brown pubescence. Leaves of mature trees 4–6 in. long, linear-oblong or narrow obovate-oblong, obtuse, coarsely and bluntly toothed, very coriaceous, hard, rigid, almost woody, pubescent when young, quite glabrous when old; leaves of young trees not so coriaceous, longer and narrower, 4–10 in. long, linear or linear-lanceolate, often acute, more acutely serrate. Racemes lateral, sessile, 2–4 in. long; peduncles and perianth densely clothed with bright red-brown velvety tomentum. Flowers in pairs on short pedicels, densely crowded, 1–1½ in. long. Perianth cylindric, swollen above; segments separating to the base and coiling up into a twisted mass. Ovary tomentose; style 1–1¼ in. long, stout, erect, clavate above. Follicles 1½ in. long, pubescent, tapering into the persistent style, ultimately splitting into 2 boat-shaped valves.—''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 350; Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 219; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 241; Kirk, Forest Fl.'' t. 35.

Common in woods throughout. Southern shores of Cook Strait, Croixelles Harbour, Kirk; Pelorus Sound, Buchanan, J. Rutland! Sea level to 2800 ft. Honeysuckle; Rewarewa. November–December.