Broadly conical, evergreen. Shiny, silver-green leaves 3-7cm long. Tiny flowers, dark red, then green to black capsules with sticky black seeds. Good shelter & screening tree. Throughout NZ except Westland, where P. colensoi takes over.

Can grow to 25m usually a single trunk, branches weeping and spreading. Adult leaflets 30-50, not crowded or overlapping, of similar size, with an obvious petiolule, moderately to sparcely hairy, hairs straight and appressed. Leaves >30mm, leaflet pairs >6. Juveniles divaricating and interlacing branching. Can be deciduous in a cold climate. To 7 Yellow flowers in a bunch in Spring attract tuis and bellbirds, pigeons feed on the leaves.

Seedlings from a selected bushy plant flowering from mid March through to early September, a mass of honey bees in June. A good screening plant.