Pennantiaceae Family - Kaikomako (Pennantia corymbosa) and Baylisiana (Pennantia baylisiana) 

Here’s one for each eye when you can get that all important break. The Pennantiaceae family is a relatively new Australasian classification with a single genus, Pennantia. It contains four species of which two are endemic to New Zealand. The New Zealand species are Baylisiana (Pennantia baylisiana) and Kaikomako (Pennantia corymbosa). All four Pennantia species are endemic either to Eastern Australia, Norfolk Island, or New Zealand – the Australian relatives being Brown Beech (Pennantia cunnighamii) and a Norfolk Island only species, Dendrobium Macropus (Pennantia endlicheri).

Kaikomako (Pennantia corymbosa)

• The name kaikomako is co-opted from Maori and means quite literally, food of the bellbird (Kai = food – kōmako = bellbird)
• Māori used Kaikomako to ignite fire by rasping a pointed Kaikamako stick backwards and forwards on some softer mahoe. Eventually it caused mahoe dust to gather at the end of a groove where the heat generated ignited the dust.
• Kaikomako is dispersed by mainly bellbirds who eat the fruit and drop the seed elsewhere
• P. corymbosa is a moisture lover and is most often found in lowland forest along stream margins and occasionally around high tide marks
• It does well in gardens and makes handsome patio pots
• Kaikomako is a hard durable wood, light-coloured, straight-grained, and very dense

Baylisiana (Pennantia baylisiana)

• Easily grown from seed 
• The only known wild tree (Great Island) is functionally female
• Viable fruit has been produced in the wild and in cultivated plants 
• Plants should be grown out of range of Kaikomako to avoid producing hybrid seed 
• Baylisiana can be grown from cuttings, and bottom sections of new stem suckers 
• Both cutting choices are difficult to strike and cultivating Baylisiana is only a recent practice