page_title: Entelea
section_title: Ecology
hierarchical_section_title: Entelea / Ecology
caption_attribution_description: Whau (Entelea arborescens), detail of leaves and flowers, Auckland, New Zealand.
context_page_description: Entelea arborescens or whau is a species of malvaceous tree endemic to New Zealand. E. arborescens is the only species in the genus Entelea. A shrub or small tree to 6 m with large lime-like leaves giving a tropical appearance, whau grows in low forest along the coast of the North Island and the northern tip of the South Island. The dry fruit capsules are very distinctly brown and covered with spines. The common name whau is a Māori word that appears to derive from the common Polynesian word for hibiscus, other malvaceous trees which whau superficially resembles. Alternate names include 'New Zealand mulberry', 'corkwood' and 'evergreen lime'.
context_section_description: In its natural habitat the tree depends mainly for success upon its prodigious seed production, the remarkably long life of the seed, and, after germination, rapid growth. In forest, whau is essentially a transient, opportunist species. The characteristics which cause it to be effective in such a role include: its ability to quickly occupy ground where light has been temporarily let into the forest; its tremendous rate of growth; its ability to rapidly produce fruit; its enormous seed production, especially as it is about to die; and the fact that its seeds are capable of germinating as soon as the capsules open. 
  Whau seeds can be stimulated into growth by fire after lying on the surface of the ground for many years. Having germinated, whau establishes itself with striking rapidity. In a study on Taranga (Hen Island), in favourable conditions whau was often the first new plant to appear, followed by Urtica ferox (tree nettle), Macropiper excelsum (kawakawa), Coprosma macrocarpa (coastal karamu) and Coprosma lucida (shiny karamu); forest-dominating trees were slower to come in – Corynocarpus (karaka) most quickly, followed by Beilschmiedia tawa (tawa).
caption: Whau has attractive large leaves and white flowers.
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