New Zealand natives in S.F.

Understandable, but although it was popularized by New Zealand growers and named for the national bird, the vine with fuzzy brown fruit originated in China and was known as Chinese gooseberry until its rebranding in the 1950s.

Hard-core Tolkien fans might know that the trees the Ents herded in Fangorn Forest in the film version of "Lord of the Rings" were red and silver nothofagus "beeches," endemic to New Zealand.

According to Elizabeth McClintock's "The Trees of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco," Bay Area nurseries were offering New Zealand Christmas tree, New Zealand tea tree and other antipodean trees and shrubs by the 1860s and 1870.

A massive rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum) tree from the exhibit, an evergreen with little scaly leaves and weeping branches, still thrives in the botanical garden's New Zealand section.

The New Zealand conifers haven't caught on in the Bay Area - although both the San Francisco and University of California botanical gardens boast impressive specimens of rimu, kauri (Agathis australis) and others - nor have the southern beeches of Fangorn.

Compared with plant communities in similar latitudes, there are fewer annuals, deciduous trees and insect-pollinated plants (birds and lizards do the job).

While you won't find most of these plants in the typical nursery, we've seen some for sale at botanical gardens, the Dry Garden in Oakland and Annie's Annuals in Richmond.