Kowhai.....

.....New Zealand's national flower.

Widespread in lowland forest margins, riverbanks, lakesides on all three islands, also in gardens and along streets. Flowers in small clusters are bright sunshine yellow, tubular and drooping. They are the favoured food of tui, bellbirds and silvereyes. The word Kowhai is used in the Maori language for the colour yellow, pronounced ko-fai.

Traditionally Maori used the flexible branches as a construction material in their houses and to snare birds while the flowers were used as a yellow dye. Māori also used the kōwhai tree as medicine. The bark was heated in a calabash with hot stones, and made into a poultice to treat wounds or rubbed on a sore back or made into an infusion to treat bruising or muscular pains. If someone was bitten by a seal, an infusion (wai kōwhai) was prepared from kōwhai and applied to the wounds and the patient was said to recover within days.

My neighbours tree is in full bloom with the flowers dangling over the fence, nice to see some yellow after all the pink in my garden, works well for Flower Friday to, thanks to BikerBear for continuing to host.

Enjoy the weekend everyone :)

Scientific name: Sophora microphylla