Did you know that you can bend young lancewood to the ground and when released, it will spring back unharmed? The juvenile lancewood has long thin leathery leaves that bend downwards. The leaves were inedible to the Moa. The tree later changes form, growing foliage when it is tall enough to be beyond the reach of its extinct predator. Thijs, the owner of Lancewood Landscape Gardening thought this is clever, so clever that he named his company after this remarkable tree. Besides that, lancewood was one of the first plants Thijs planted after moving to New Zealand 16 years ago.