{{Short description|Genus of coniferous trees}} {{For|the genus of wasps|Agathis (wasp)}} {{Redirect|Kauri|}} {{Distinguish|text=the eucalyptus species karri}} {{Automatic taxobox | fossil_range = <br/>Paleocene to recent {{Fossil range|64.67|0|earliest=Cenomanian}} Possible Cenomanian record | image = Agathis robusta2.JPG | image_caption = ''Agathis robusta'' Eastern Australia | taxon = Agathis | authority = Salisb.{{R|POWO}} | type_species = ''Agathis loranthifolia'' | type_species_authority = Salisb. | subdivision_ranks = Species | range_map = Agathis Species Density.svg | range_map_caption = Distribution of ''Agathis'' species | synonyms_ref = <ref name="POWO">{{cite web |url=https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:331119-2 |title=''Agathis'' Salisb. |website=Plants of the World Online |publisher=Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew |year=2025 |access-date=13 April 2025}}</ref> | synonyms = *''Dammara'' <small>(Rumph.) Lam. ex Link</small> *''Salisburyodendron'' <small>A.V.Bobrov & Melikyan</small> }}
'''''Agathis''''', commonly known as '''kauri''' or '''dammara''', is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees, native to Australasia and Southeast Asia. It is one of three extant genera in the family Araucariaceae, alongside ''Wollemia'' and ''Araucaria'' (being more closely related to the former).<ref name="POWO"/><ref name="Laubenfels">de Laubenfels, David J. 1988. Coniferales. P. 337–453 in Flora Malesiana, Series I, Volume 10. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.</ref> Its leaves are much broader than most conifers. Kauri gum was historically commercially harvested from living New Zealand kauri and from swamp ground.{{Not verified in body|date=August 2025}}
== Description == {{More citations needed section|date=June 2021}} [[File:Agathis-robusta-SF23020-01.jpg|thumb|Trunk of ''Agathis robusta'' at Cairns Botanic Gardens]] Mature kauri trees have characteristically large trunks, with little or no branching below the crown. In contrast, young trees are normally conical in shape, forming a more rounded or irregularly shaped crown as they achieve maturity.<ref name="Whitmore">Whitmore, T.C. 1977. ''A first look at Agathis''. Tropical Forestry Papers No. 11. University of Oxford Commonwealth Forestry Institute.</ref>
The bark is smooth and light grey to grey-brown, usually peeling into irregular flakes that become thicker on more mature trees. The branch structure is often horizontal or, when larger, ascending. The lowest branches often leave annular branch scars when they detach from the lower trunk.
The juvenile leaves in all species are larger than the adult, more or less acute, varying among the species from ovate to lanceolate. Adult leaves are opposite, elliptical to linear, very leathery and quite thick. Young leaves are often a coppery-red, contrasting markedly with the usually green or glaucous-green foliage of the previous season.
The male pollen cones appear usually only on larger trees after seed cones have appeared. The female seed cones usually develop on short lateral branchlets, maturing after two years. They are normally oval or globe shaped.
Seeds of some species are attacked by the caterpillars of ''Agathiphaga'', some of the most primitive of all living moths.
== Uses == {{Verify section|date=August 2025}} [[File:Kauri logs, near Piha. ATLIB 135986.png|thumb|''Agathis australis'' logs and loggers near Piha]] Various species of kauri give diverse resins such as kauri gum. The timber is generally straight-grained and of fine quality with an exceptional strength-to-weight ratio and rot resistance, making it ideal for yacht hull construction. The wood is commonly used in the manufacture of guitars and ukuleles due to its low density and relatively low price of production. It is also used for some Go boards (goban). The uses of the New Zealand species (''A. australis'') included shipbuilding, house construction, wood panelling, furniture making, mine braces, and railway sleepers. Due to the hard resin of the wood, it was the traditionally preferred material used by Māori for wooden weapons, patu aruhe (fernroot beaters) and barkcloth beaters.<ref>{{Cite Q|Q58677501}}</ref>
== Evolutionary history == Within Araucariaceae, it is thought that ''Agathis'' and ''Wollemia'' share a common ancestor which lived between 90 and 55 million years ago, and the two genera form a sister clade to the older ''Araucaria.''<ref>[https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4464890/ Complete Chloroplast Genome of the Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis): Structure and Evolution]</ref> The oldest fossils currently confidently assignable to ''Agathis'' are those of ''Agathis immortalis'' from the Salamanca Formation of Patagonia, which dates to the Paleocene, approximately 64.67–63.49 million years ago. ''Agathis''-like leaves are also known from the slightly older Lefipán Formation of the same region, which date to the very end of the Cretaceous.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Escapa |first1=Ignacio H. |last2=Iglesias |first2=Ari |last3=Wilf |first3=Peter |last4=Catalano |first4=Santiago A. |last5=Caraballo-Ortiz |first5=Marcos A. |last6=Rubén Cúneo |first6=N. |date=August 2018 |title=Agathis trees of Patagonia's Cretaceous-Paleogene death landscapes and their evolutionary significance |journal=American Journal of Botany |language=en |volume=105 |issue=8 |pages=1345–1368 |doi=10.1002/ajb2.1127 |pmid=30074620 |s2cid=51908977 |issn=0002-9122|doi-access=free |bibcode=2018AmJB..105.1345E |hdl=11336/87592 |hdl-access=free }}</ref> Some authors have suggested that ''Agathis'' is known from earlier in the Cretaceous (Aptian to Cenomanian in North Africa.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Ijouiher |first=Jamale |title=The desert bones: the paleontology and paleoecology of Mid-Cretaceous North Africa |date=2022 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-06331-1 |series=Life of the past |location=Bloomington |pages=37–38 |chapter=Flora of North Africa}}</ref> Other fossils of the genus are known from the Eocene of Patagonia, the Late Paleocene-Miocene of southern Australia, and the Oligocene–Miocene of New Zealand.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Wilf |first1=Peter |last2=Escapa |first2=Ignacio H. |last3=Cúneo |first3=N. Rubén |last4=Kooyman |first4=Robert M. |last5=Johnson |first5=Kirk R. |last6=Iglesias |first6=Ari |date=January 2014 |title=First South American Agathis (Araucariaceae), Eocene of Patagonia |url=https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.3732/ajb.1300327 |journal=American Journal of Botany |language=en |volume=101 |issue=1 |pages=156–179 |doi=10.3732/ajb.1300327 |pmid=24418576 |issn=0002-9122|hdl=11336/27660 |hdl-access=free }}</ref>
== Species list == {{cladogram|title=Phylogeny of ''Agathis''<ref> {{cite journal |first1 =Gregory W. |last1 =Stull |first2 =Xiao-Jian |last2 =Qu |first3 =Caroline |last3 =Parins-Fukuchi |first4 =Ying-Ying |last4 =Yang |first5 =Jun-Bo |last5 =Yang |first6 =Zhi-Yun |last6 =Yang |first7 =Yi |last7 =Hu |first8 =Hong |last8 =Ma |first9 =Pamela S. |last9 =Soltis |first10=Douglas E. |last10=Soltis |first11=De-Zhu |last11=Li |first12=Stephen A. |last12=Smith |first13=Ting-Shuang |last13=Yi |date=19 July 2021 |title=Gene duplications and genomic conflict underlie major pulses of phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms |journal=Nature Plants |volume=7 |issue= 8 |pages=1015–1025 |pmid= 34282286 |s2cid=232282918 |doi=10.1038/s41477-021-00964-4 |doi-access= |biorxiv=10.1101/2021.03.13.435279 |url=https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.03.13.435279v2.full.pdf |via=bioarchiv.org }} :supplementary data: {{cite report |last=Stull |first=Gregory W. |date=29 June 2021 |title=Gene duplications and genomic conflict underlie major pulses of phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms |publisher=Figshare |type=supplementary data |doi=10.6084/m9.figshare.14547354.v1 |doi-access= |url=https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/Gene_duplications_and_genomic_conflict_underlie_major_pulses_of_phenotypic_evolution_in_gymnosperms/14547354 |via=Figshare.com }} </ref> | {{clade |style=font-size:90%;line-height:100%;width:400px |label1=Araucariaceae |1={{clade |label1=''Rostrata'' |1=''A. australis''<br/><small>(Don) Lindley</small> |label2=''Agathis'' |2={{clade |label1= |1={{clade |label1= |1={{clade |label1= |1=''A. atropurpurea''<br/><small>Hyland</small> |2=''A. microstachya''<br/><small>Bailey & White</small> }} |2={{clade |label1= |1=''A. dammara''<br/><small>(Lamb.) Richard & Richard</small> |2=''A. robusta''<br/><small>(Moore ex von Mueller) Bailey</small> }} }} |2={{clade |label1= |1={{clade |label1= |1=''A. labillardierei''<br/><small>Warburg</small> |2={{clade |label1= |1=''A. borneensis''<br/><small>Warburg</small> |2=''A. philippinensis''<br/><small>Warburg</small> }} }} |2={{clade |label1= |1={{clade |label1= |1=''A. vitiensis''<br/><small>(Seemann) Bentham & Hooker<br/>ex Drake</small> |2={{clade |label1= |1=''A. macrophylla''<br/><small>(Lindley 1851) Masters</small> |2=''A. silbae''<br/><small>de Laubenfels</small> }} }} |2={{clade |label1= |1={{clade |label1= |1=''A. corbassonii''<br/><small>de Laubenfels</small> |2=''A. lanceolata''<br/><small>Lindl. ex Warburg</small> }} |2={{clade |label1= |1=''A. ovata''<br/><small>(Moore ex Vieillard) Warburg</small> |2={{clade |label1= |1=''A. moorei''<br/><small>(Lindley) Masters</small> |2=''A. montana''<br/><small>de Laubenfels</small> }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }} }}
;Accepted species<ref name="POWO"/> {| class="wikitable" |- ! Image !! Scientific name !! Common name !! Distribution |- | 120px || ''Agathis atropurpurea'' || black kauri, blue kauri || Queensland, Australia |- | 120px || ''Agathis australis''||New Zealand kauri||North Island, New Zealand |- | 120px|| ''Agathis borneensis'' || Borneo kauri || western Malesia, Borneo |- | 120px || ''Agathis dammara'' || Sulawesi kauri || Philippines, Sulawesi, Maluku Islands |- | || ''Agathis flavescens'' || Tahan Agathis || Peninsular Malaysia |- | 120px || ''Agathis kinabaluensis'' || Kinabalu kauri || Borneo |- | || ''Agathis labillardierei'' || New Guinea kauri || New Guinea |- | 120px || ''Agathis lanceolata'' || Koghi kauri || New Caledonia |- | || ''Agathis lenticula'' || Sabah kauri || Borneo |- | 120px || ''Agathis macrophylla'' (syn. ''A. vitiensis'') || Pacific kauri, dakua || Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands |- | 120px || ''Agathis microstachya'' || bull kauri || Queensland, Australia |- | || ''Agathis montana'' || || New Caledonia |- |120px || ''Agathis moorei'' || white kauri || New Caledonia |- | || ''Agathis orbicula'' || Sarawak kauri || Borneo |- | 120px || ''Agathis ovata''|| Scrub kauri || New Caledonia |- | 120px || ''Agathis robusta'' || Queensland kauri || Queensland, Australia; Papua New Guinea |- | || ''Agathis robusta'' subsp. ''robusta'' || || Queensland and Papua New Guinea |- | || ''Agathis robusta'' subsp. ''nesophila'' || New Guinea kauri || Papua New Guinea |- | || ''Agathis silbae'' || || Vanuatu |- | || ''Agathis zamunerae'' || || Patagonia, South America Argentina |- |}
;Formerly included<ref name="POWO"/> Moved to ''Nageia'' * ''Agathis motleyi - Nageia motleyi'' * ''Agathis veitchii - Nageia nagi'' The placement of the fossil species ''"Agathis" jurassica'' from the Late Jurassic of Australia in this genus is doubtful.<ref name="HillBrod99">{{cite journal |last1=Hill |first1=Robert S. |last2=Brodribb |first2=Tim J. |name-list-style=amp |year=1999 |title=Southern conifers in time and space |journal=Australian Journal of Botany |volume=47 |issue=5 |pages=639–696 |doi=10.1071/BT98093 |bibcode=1999AuJB...47..639H |mode=cs1}} cited in {{cite book |last1=Dettmann |first1=Mary E. |last2=Clifford |first2=H. Trevor |name-list-style=amp |year=2005 |contribution=Biogeography of Araucariaceae |editor1-last=Dargavel |editor1-first=John |title=Araucarian Forests |pages=1–9 |publication-place=Kingston, Australia |publisher=Australian Forest History Society |isbn=978-0-9757906-1-8 |contribution-url=https://foresthistory.org.au/AuNZForestHistSeries/anzfh2entire.pdf |url-status=bot: unknown |access-date=2021-05-17 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203011936/https://foresthistory.org.au/AuNZForestHistSeries/anzfh2entire.pdf |archive-date=2018-12-03 |mode=cs1 }}</ref>
== Gallery == <gallery> File:'Lord of the Forest' Tane Mahuta.jpg|Tāne Mahuta, an ''Agathis australis'' in Waipoua Forest, the largest tree in New Zealand by volume File:Te Matua Ngahere.jpg|Te Matua Ngahere, an ''A. australis'' in Waipoua Forest, the oldest (and 2nd largest) tree in New Zealand File:Yakas kauri tree trunk 2.jpg|Trunk of the Yakas kauri (7th largest) File:Agathis lanceolata.jpg|''Agathis lanceolata'' File:Agathis ovata 2.jpg|''Agathis ovata'' File:AgathisMacroCones.jpg|''Agathis macrophylla'' File:Agathisrobusta.JPG|''Agathis robusta'' File:Agathis borneensis - feuilles.JPG|''Agathis borneensis'' File:KauriFruchtstand.jpg|''Agathis australis'' male pollen cone File:KauriSamen.jpg|Scale from ''Agathis australis'' female cone File:Kauricone01.jpg|''Agathis australis'' cone File:Agathis australis foliage and cones.jpg|''Agathis australis'' leaves and cones </gallery>
== References == {{reflist|27em}}
== External links == {{Commons category}} {{Wikispecies|Agathis}}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20180808163758/http://agathis.info/ Systematics of ''Agathis'' (archived copy)] * [http://www.conifers.org/ar/ag/index.html Gymnosperm Database: ''Agathis''] * [https://web.archive.org/web/20080803063018/http://www.teara.govt.nz/TheBush/NativePlantsAndFungi/KauriForest/en Kauri forest] in ''Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand'' * [https://threatenedconifers.rbge.org.uk/taxonomy/araucariaceae/agathis Threatened Conifers of the World] * https://www.researchgate.net/publication/309508851_A_reconstruction_of_the_palaeoecology_and_environmental_dynamics_of_the_Bahariya_Formation_of_Egypt
{{Plant classification}} {{Acrogymnospermae classification}} {{Taxonbar|from=Q216113}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Agathis Category:Conifer genera