Alectryon excelsus Gaertn.

In New Zealand Alectryon excelsus is an important landscape tree, widely planted for the sake of its broad evergreen crown of handsome pinnate leaves, large inflorescences of purplish flowers, and bright red and black seeds. The leaves flush rosy pink and turn to mid-green, retaining some of the silky hairs found in many parts of the tree.

Titoki has been cultivated in the San Francisco Bay Area since at least 1893, when one was planted on the Stanford University campus by Dr David Starr Jordan (this tree has since been removed, but there are several descendants or replacements on the campus at the present time) (Bracewell 2005). It is also grown in other Bay Area gardens. Beyond this favourable enclave, it appears to be frequently grown only in Cornwall, where it is available from nurseries, with occasional appearances elsewhere, such as the 1.2 m specimen reported from Southend, Essex (Johnson 2007). No large specimens are known. Tom Hudson (pers. comm. 2006) reports that it is slow-growing and needs a certain maturity to be hardy. He recommends growing young plants on in warmth for some time before planting out. In New Zealand A. excelsus is a lowland plant, preferring fertile alluvial soils, but also growing on volcanic substrata (New Zealand Plant Conservation Network 2005a). In cultivation a fertile warm site is indicated.