The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Hi, could someone ID this tree for us please? The tree, around 6m, is in a play area and the capsules are dropping at the moment and proving tempting to younger children who still like to put things in their mouth, so we need to know if they could cause problems if eaten/touched. The capsules up until now have been all green but are now starting to turn red. Thought it might be some kind of pittosporum (at a very uneducated guess). Thank you for any help you can offer.

Pittosporum tenuifolium cultivar - not known to be toxic. However, the fruits (when unopened) are rather hard, and when mature (and open, the valves are woody). The seeds are surrounded by a sticky viscum that has a bitter taste, and seeds are also somewhat bitter. I really would not advise that children (or adults) eat them mostly because they do taste bitter and tend to be rather hard to chew (so you may break teeth etc). However, having tried them myself (Pittosporum fairhchildii) I can attest that I am, alive and well - and I tried them in 1995. Don't ask why I tired them..

Thanks for your reply Peter, glad to hear we were on the right track. Your sense of adventure has been our gain! When we talked to the Poisons Line we were told that Pittosporum would cause gastro problems at the most, but then we second guessed ourself that we had the right culprit, so thanks for confirming that for us. Hopefully we can discourage the kids from experimenting further, but at least we know there'll be no long-term damage.