Pohutukawa are doing rather too well in San Francisco.
Team New Zealand aren't the only New Zealand natives creating waves in San Francisco - so are the pohutukawa.
It was with some shock that a recent bike trip to work during the America's Cup was halted by the entirely unexpected sight of a pohutukawa in San Francisco's Bay St.
It is in a small stand there, part of thousands imported and planted in San Francisco during the 1980s. It was like seeing Lake Taupo in Australia's Nullarbor Plain.
However, the humble pohutukawa have been doing well in San Francisco. They are doing so well that their insistent root structure is causing damage to paths, kerbs, sewers and drains.
It turns out San Francisco is all too familiar with the tree they call the New Zealand Christmas tree. About three years ago, a local woman had had enough of the lovely tree planted about 26 years earlier.
It had buckled the footpath and so interfered with her sewers that it caused 17 blockages in 10 years. She fought a battle with the local council, culminating in a "tree trial", where (after vigorous defence from the Department of Urban Forestry) she was allowed to take the tree down.
