Puahou or Whauwhaupaku
This native tree has been given two different Maori names and is generally referred to in texts using either one name or the other.
Common name: Five-finger
Botanical name: Pseudopanax arboreus
The puahou is a small tree that grows up to 8 m high. It is common from North Cape to Bluff and grows from sea level to 750 m altitude in forest and open scrub. It can be epiphytic on tree fern trunks, with its roots descending to the ground. There is one in CO’s garden that is growing in this manner low down on the edge of an old Curpressus macrocarpa stump (it had germinated in the bark when the tree was still alive) and I sometimes find them growing in the crook of a large tree a couple of metres above ground and have to weed them out from there.
Puahou showing aerial roots
Leaves
The leaves are very distinctive, being compound and consisting of five to seven leaflets in a fan (usually five), each 10-20 cm long and 4-7 cm wide. They are quite thick and leathery with coarsely toothed margins.
Flowers and fruit
Flowers are small, creamy coloured and scented, and are borne in great numbers on umbels at the ends of the branchlets in winter and early spring. Male and female flowers usually occur on different trees. The male flowers are larger and more showy and are 7-8 mm across, whereas female flowers are only 3 mm across. Their sweet scent makes them very attractive to insects, especially bees.
[flower photos to follow – not yet in flower at time of publication]
They are followed by dark purple, almost black, fruits which provide food for native birds during the winter as they take 9-12 months to ripen. This in turn ensures that the puahou seed is spread far and wide in the bird droppings and the tree pops up pretty much everywhere. In CO’s garden it is pretty much a weed species and many seedlings have to be removed from garden beds every year.
Fruit clusters at the start of winter
Sometimes there are a great many fruit clusters on the tree, whilst other trees nearby have very few.
A heavy fruit burden on this tree in CO's garden
Bark
Young trees have quite a smooth bark, but it becomes rough and corky on old trees.
Bark of a moderately-aged tree
The puahou at GZ
The tree at GZ is a typical moderate-sized puahou
The cache
The cache is, as usual, a red M&M container, although in this case the container was very kindly donated by wb1116 WITH its original contents intact! Mrs B and I thoroughly enjoyed preparing the cache for use 
. At time of placement the cache contained a log book, a gel pen, an appropriate FTF prize and a Travel Bug that wants to be moved along because I have had it in my possession far too long.
Online logs that do not have a matching signature in the paper log will be deleted. There is room for small TBs and Geocoins inside the cache.
Please replace the cache where and as found so that it cannot be noticed by the many walkers, cyclists and horse riders who use this track.