| Toothed lancewood | |
|---|---|
| |
| Adult tree with a few remnant juvenile leaves | |
Scientific classification 
| |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Apiales |
| Family: | Araliaceae |
| Genus: | Pseudopanax |
| Species: | P. ferox
|
| Binomial name | |
| Pseudopanax ferox Kirk
| |
Pseudopanax ferox, the toothed lancewood or horoeka, is a small tree endemic to New Zealand. It is similar to the more common lancewood, Pseudopanax crassifolius, but with more prominently tooth-shaped leaves. The juvenile leaves are a very dark grey-brown to grey-green colour, narrow, stiff and up to 40 cm long. Once the slow growing tree reaches maturity at 10 to 15 years, the leaf form becomes shorter, wider and dark green in colour. It is only in adulthood that the tree's shape changes from one central stem and downward growing leaves to a more typical tree shape with branches spreading to build a round head. A mature toothed lancewood can reach 6 metres height with a trunk of up to 25 cm in diameter. The mature trunk has distinctive longitudinal grooves which sometimes twist slightly.
The tree is sometimes also called fierce lancewood in reference to its fierce-looking saw tooth shaped juvenile leaves.