Number 100 in Burstall’s Great Trees of New Zealand [1], the Motu Tōtara is well known as the largest mountain tōtara (Podocarpus laetus, formerly P. hallii or P. cunninghamii) in existence.

Despite being an strikingly significant and visibly aged relic of the original forest, it is not the largest mountain tōtara – that is a massive 3.6 m diameter tree at 900 m altitude on the southern slopes of the Mangakahu Valley, northeast of Taumarunui [2]. Nor is it actually mountain tōtara. During research of his comprehensive book on tōtara, the noted botanist Dr Philip Simpson actually found the Motu Tōtara to be the “ordinary” lowland variety, P. tōtara [3].

The tree exists in a boggy patch of podocarp dominated trees surrounded by original and recovering beech forest. A 60 m branch track leading from the short loop track to the tree goes to a group of three other tōtara of only slightly smaller sizes – 2.1, 2.4 and 2.6 m in diameter at 1.4 m, but with substantially more intact canopies.

(M. Smillie, 2018)

References:
1. Burstall, S.W.; Sale, E.V. 1984: Great trees of New Zealand. A.H. & A.W. Reed Ltd, Wellington.
2. P. Simpson, Tōtara: A Natural and Cultural History, 2017, page 41.
3. ibid, page 237.