This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 8, September 2017
September in the hills with Chris Horne
Adiantum cunninghamii, huruhuru tapairu, common maidenhair
This endemic fern is one of seven members of the genus Adiantum in our flora. Collectively called maidenhair ferns, they all feature shiny, dark-brown stalks/stipes and stems/rachises.
Origin of the names
Adiantum, from the Greek word ‘adiantos’, meaning ‘unwetted’, refers to the fronds remaining as if dry after being plunged into water; cunninghamii refers to Allan Cunningham (1791-1839), an English botanist, stationed in Australia, who collected plants in New Zealand. The Adiantum ferns have several Māori names, e.g., huruhuru tapairu, makawe tapairu, tawatawa. ‘Huruhuru’ means ‘coarse hair’, ‘bristles’; ‘tapairu’ means ‘honoured lady’ – hence ‘maidenhair’; ‘makawe’ means ‘hair of the head’ or ‘ringlet’. The verb ‘tawatawa’ means ‘to be mottled, like the skin of a mackerel’.
Distribution and habitat
Common maidenhair is our most widespread and abundant species of Adiantum. Look for it in coastal and lowland forest, bush remnants, on cliffs, banks, limestone areas and among boulders, up to about 500 m elevation. You can find it on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Wai Pounamu/South Island, the Kermadec, Three Kings, Rakiura/Stewart and Rekohu/Chatham Islands.
Rhizome
The stout, far-creeping rhizome is clad in stiff, dark-brown scales up to 8mm long.
Growth habit
Common maidenhair is a small ground fern. Its fronds are 10-35 cm long x 5-24 cm wide. The segments/pinnae are more or less oblong, tending to curve towards the apex. The upper edges of a segment are irregularly toothed, the lower edge is smooth. The segments are dark green above, and blue-green below. The wiry, shining, almost black stalk/stipe is attached to one corner of a segment.
Reproduction
Indusia are thin, kidney-shaped outgrowths of tissue which cover the spores/sori. As the indusia mature, they shrivel and bend backwards to expose the spore capsules/sporangia. Ripe spores are then spread by the wind to produce young maidenhair ferns.
Uses
Māori prepared a lotion from the fronds and roots of common maidenhair. Adiantum fern species remain popular in the UK, a left-over from a fern craze there in the 1800s.
Where to look for common maidenhair
Look for this widespread fern in Otari-Wilton’s Bush, Wellington Botanic Garden, Huntleigh Park, Khandallah Park, Long Gully Bush Reserve, the southern North Island coast, and the Remutaka, Tararua and Aorangi ranges. Its completely hairless frond, and the oblong segments which are often bluish-green on the underside, will help you to identify it.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 5, June 2023
June in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Agathis australis, Kauri,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Agathis’ is the Greek word meaning ‘a spool wound with thread’, referring to the likeness of the cone and cone scales of the plant to a ball of yarn; ‘australis’ is the Latin word meaning ‘southern’. The Agathis genus is a member of the Aracariaceae family, an ancient conifer family dating back to about 120 million years ago. Kauri is the only New Zealand member of this family, which is found mostly in the southern hemisphere and includes many timber trees of the genera Araucaria and Agathis. An introduction to conifers was outlined in the Tramper, February 2015.
Distribution and habitat
Kauri is endemic to New Zealand. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, from near Cape Reinga south to Kawhia in the West and near Te Puke in the East. Following severe logging, it is now found only in protected forests and reserves. It has been planted in many more southern locations where it thrives and has sometimes produced seedlings. In the north, it is best seen in Waipoua Forest in Northland / Te Tai Tokerau, Coromandel Peninsula, Waitakere Ranges Regional Park and Aotea / Great Barrier Island, growing mostly in lowland forest and hills where it forms dense canopies with particular associated species.
Growth habit
Kauri is a large, resiniferous forest tree 30–60 m tall with a trunk diameter up to 7 m, free of branches for at least half its height. Juvenile trees have a columnar growth form with some lower branches, which fall off later. The bark is bluish-grey with peeling large thick flakes with wavy edges. Leaves / needles are mostly alternate, leathery, parallel-veined and without stalks. Juvenile leaves are lanceolate, 50-100 mm long and often brown; adult leaves are linear-oblong, 30-40 mm long and green. Some trees have been estimated to be 4000 years old. Young kauri are called rickers. Kauri dieback has become a serious disease. It is caused by a microscopic soil-borne pathogen called Phytophthora agathidicida which infects the roots. Research and management to restrict its spread is carried out by several organisations including Victoria University.
Reproduction
Kauri is monoecious, having separate male and female cones on the same tree. Cones appear in spring and summer. Male cones are 20-50 mm long, stout, cylindrical and female cones are 50-75 mm in diameter and globose. Cone-scales on female cones are spirally arranged and bear ovules/seeds. The leathery to woody scales are widened above but then narrow toward the base, bearing one ovule/seed per scale. Seeds are released from cone scales when the cones scales open out from the cone or when cones fall and break. They are ovoid, compressed, with winged margins and ripen over two years.
Uses
The durable timber has been used for houses, buildings, boat-building, furniture, cabinetry, veneers, musical instruments and turned objects. Māori used the timber for waka / canoe-making, carvings and domestic objects. Swamp kauri preserved in swamps and bogs is used like new timber. Kauri gum from the tree trunks, both fossil and fresh, has been a valuable commercial commodity, especially for varnish-making. Burnt resin was used to attract tuna / eels and other fish. For dyes, Māori used soot from burning resin for tattooing and for black paint. Soot from burning timber mixed with shark oil was used for painting waka / canoes. For medicinal uses, gum scraped to powder has been applied with olive oil to burns and fresh gum resin has been used as a chewing gum.
Where can you find kauri planted locally?
In Ōtari-Wilton's Bush many kauri, some in a grove, have been planted, the first in 1929. Kauri St. in Waterloo, Lower Hutt, is lined with kauri.
Note: Kauri does not grow locally naturally.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 5, June 2011
June in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Alectryon excelsus, Tītoki
 Alectryon excelsus, Tītoki Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
You can often spot a tītoki trunk from a distance by its almost black colour, and when you get close, you can feel its slightly rough texture. The dark green, pointed leaflets, each about 7 cm long, usually have serrated edges, and are arranged in pairs along the stalk, with a single leaflet at the end. This foliage is highly palatable to browsing animals such as possums, which can easily kill a tree by defoliating it. Tītoki grow in lowland sites with fertile soil and a reasonably warm climate, where they can reach to well over 10 m in height.
A NZ endemic, tītoki extend from North Cape, to Banks Peninsula and Westland.
Pendulous clusters of tiny, deep red flowers are followed by curiously shaped, woody, brown capsules which take about a year to mature. When they open, they reveal what looks like a scarlet raspberry (it's called an aril), topped by a shiny black seed about 1 cm long.
Māori observed that birds flocked to feed on tītoki in season, and after gorging on these succulent arils, nearly always drank water. So choosing a tītoki with a good crop of arils, hunters would secure in its branches, tiny wooden troughs like canoes, filled with water. Attached around the troughs were finely plaited snares which were activated by a hunter hidden nearby, ready to tug the draw-string.
Like many plants in our flora, tītoki has medicinal (rongoā) properties which were known to Māori, and the fragrant oil, when refined by a laborious process, was used as an unguent and a perfume.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 9, October 2020
October in the hills with Chris Horne, Michele Dickson
Aristotelia fruticosa, , mountain wineberry
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Aristotelia is named after the Greek philosopher and naturalist Aristotle (384-322 BC); fruticosa comes from the Latin words ‘frutex, fruticis’, meaning ‘shrub’. Mountain wineberry is a member of the Elaeocarpaceae family, a mostly tropical family, represented in Aotearoa/New Zealand by the genera Elaeocarpus and Aristotelia with two species.
Distribution and habitat
Mountain wineberry is endemic to Aotearoa/New Zealand. Look for it from the Volcanic Plateau and the Raukumara Range southwards to Rakiura/Stewart Island. It grows in the understorey of lowland to subalpine forest and in shrublands. It is more common at higher altitudes.
Growth habit
Mountain wineberry is a much-branched, erect to low-growing evergreen shrub, up to about 2 m tall. The bark is reddish brown. The branches range from entangled (divaricating) to erect and usually rigid. They are reddish brown and hairy. The leaves are in opposite pairs or in opposite bundles (fascicles). On juvenile branchlets the leaves are variable, either 5-7 x 4-5 mm, leathery and dark green, or 15 x 9 mm, thinner and lighter green. The veins are conspicuous on the undersides of the leaves. The juvenile leaves are larger and far more varied than the adult leaves, e.g., their edges are serrate and in some cases deeply incised.
Reproduction
Mountain wineberry flowers from October to December. The female and male flowers develop on separate plants. The flowers, 3 mm across, are solitary, or in opposite pairs, or in small groups of 3-6 flowers. They are white, pink or red. They resemble those on wineberry/makomako described in the September Tramper. The berries which develop from November to April are fleshy, spherical, 3-5 mm in diameter and bitter tasting. They range from white to bright pink to dark red to black. Each berry contains four-angled 2-2.6 mm seeds which are spread by birds.
Hybridism
Mountain wineberry and wineberry/makomako sometimes hybridise so look for hybrids when you visit areas where both species grow.
Uses
Mountain wineberry can be used as a hedge plant.
Where can you find mountain wineberry near Wellington?
Look for it in the Tararua Range beside the tracks to Powell Hut and Herepai Hut. If you find it in the Remutaka or Aorangi ranges, please photograph it and send us the images.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 8, September 2020
September in the hills with Chris Horne, Michele Dickson
Aristotelia serrata, makomako, wineberry
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Aristotelia is named after the Greek philosopher and naturalist Aristotle (384-322 BC); serrata comes from the Latin word ‘serratus’, meaning ‘shaped like a saw’. Makomako is a member of the Elaeocarpaceae family, a mostly tropical family, represented in Aotearoa/New Zealand by the genera Elaeocarpus and Aristotelia with two species. Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Distribution and habitat
Makomako is endemic to New Zealand. It is found on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, on Te Waipounamu/South Island and on Rakiura/Stewart Island in lowland to montane forests. It is common throughout but less common in drier areas. In second growth and bush clearings it is common, especially after fire.
Growth habit
Makomako is a fast-growing, much-branched small tree up to about 10 m tall with a trunk up to 30 cm in diameter and long, upright branches. The smooth grey or pale brown bark is spotted with lenticels. The branchlets are light to dark red and covered in short, soft hairs. The leaves are opposite or subopposite, 5–12 x 4–8 cm, thin and oval to heart-shaped with long, slender stalks up to 5 cm long. The margins are sharply and irregularly serrate. Coloured light or dark green above, they are often flushed with pink or purple on the paler underside. The veins are obvious and raised below. Juvenile leaves tend to be larger than adult leaves. Makomako is deciduous – it loses most or all of its leaves in winter.
Reproduction
Flowering occurs from October to December with male and female flowers on separate plants. The flowers are rose-coloured, 4-6 mm long, with lobed petals, not unlike the white flowers of hīnau and pōkaka. They hang on slender stalks to make up many-flowered bunches 6-10 cm long.
The fruits, which develop from November to January, are fleshy berries, 4-5 mm diameter and dark wine-red or almost black. Each berry contains about eight irregularly angled seeds, 2–3 mm in size.
Uses
Rongoā/medicinal uses include: boiling bark for rheumatism; boiling leaves to make a solution for burns, rheumatism, sore eyes and boils; warming leaves to use as a bandage for burns; an infusion of bark soaked in cold water for eyes. The berries were eaten, especially by children, or squeezed to produce the thick fluid to make a sweetish drink.
The bark provided a blue-black dye when bruised and steeped in water. The light, white wood is liable to break. Its uses included: poles for fishing–net handles; sticks used in various games; saplings for stilts; to make poi, a light ball with a string attached, twirled to accompany a song. Charcoal made from the wood has been used to make gunpowder. The bark can be used for small water vessels.
Where can you find makomako?
Look for it in and around the edges of bush reserves in Wellington City, Te Kopahou Reserve, Makara, East Harbour Regional Park, Western and Eastern Hutt Hills, Porirua Scenic Reserve,, Rangituhi/Colonial Knob Scenic Reserve and in the Akatarawa, Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 11, December 2015
December in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Asplenium bulbiferum, Manamana, Hen and chickens; Mother fern
In last month's article we described Asplenium flaccidum. This month's plant choice is another common member of the asplenium genus: Asplenium bulbiferum. Its Mēori name, 'manamana', is probably an emphatically complimentary 'tag name' derived from the word 'mana' which means prestige* (see Uses) or dignity. 'Bulbiferum' means 'bearing bulbs', In the bush you have probably often seen manamana's large handsome fronds carrying tiny young fernlets called bulbils on their top surface 'like a brood of chickens'. (See image). Sometimes the whole frond falls off or is knocked off and all the bulbils get 'planted' at once!
 Asplenium bulbiferum fronds showing bulbils Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Reproduction
Bubils are a most unusual method of fern reproduction in NZ. The bulbils on top of the manamana frond are complete young fern plants which have grown there directly out of the cells on the frond surface. When the bulbils have sprouted one or two tiny fronds of their own they will detach and land on the soil, sprout roots, and live a life completely separate from the parent plant.
Asplenium bulbiferum is also unusual in that it has two ways of reproduction, one as above, non-sexual via bulbils, and the other, like other ferns, sexual. The sexual method of reproduction in ferns is cyclic and complex, involving spores and both sexual and non-sexual phases. Spores are single-celled reproductive organs, but neither male nor female. When mature, spores fall to the ground or are further distributed by wind. In damp conditions, on the ground, each spore may then develop into what is called a prothallus. Though only about the size of ½ a fingernail, each prothallus develops two separate sets of sexual organs, one producing eggs and the other sperm. Fertilisation between them produces tiny new fern plants which grow just like any other fern plant, thus completing the cycle.
Form and size
Manamana is terrestrial, with dark green, elliptic fronds ascending from the rhizome in a graceful curve, and extending for 12 – 120 cm x 4 – 50 cm. (shorter and broader than last month's Asplenium flaccidum fronds). The stems are brown at the base and green further up. The fronds' slim, tapering segments can be up to 35 cm long and are dissected 2 or 3 times further into smaller parts, making an intricate, elegant pattern. The sori on the back of each are typically neatly arranged at c. 45 degrees to the midrib.
Distribution
Asplenium bulbiferum is found in lowland and montane forest in the North, South, Rakiura / Stewart, Rekohu / Chatham and Antipodes islands and also in Australia. If you're tramping in Central Otago or the drier parts of South Canterbury you will not be likely to see it there, as it prefers moister environments.
Uses
As its Māori name implies, manamana had many ceremonial* uses such as a placatory offering to Tāne when a tree had to be felled for waka-making; or as soft swaddling for a new-born baby. Young manamana shoots were a popular culinary vegetable wrapped round fish or birds in the hāngi and mature fronds were sometimes even woven into clothing. Along with a number of other indigenous plant species manamana was sometimes soaked and used as a rongoā wash to bathe painful cutaneous conditions.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 2, March 2016
March in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
 Asplenium flabellifolium, with inset showing fertile segments. Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Asplenium flabellifolium, necklace fern/walking fern/butterfly fern
We have not yet found a Māori name for this month's Asplenium species, necklace fern, a dainty, distinctive fern of dry, rocky sites. Its botanical name is derived from the Latin word: flabella, a fan, and folia, a leaf.
But ferns don't have true leaves, Instead, fern fronds have segments which look like leaves but have two functions – (1) the upper surface of the segments converts visible light into energy, and (2) if you turn a segment over, you will see that the underside has sori, containing spores, which are reproductive organs, as we described for Asplenium bulbiferum.
Once recognised, this uncommon little fern is easily remembered, because it is so unusual.
Form and habit
Its narrow, delicate fronds, (4–30 cm x 0.8–4 cm) are often prostrate, but frequently arch up and over (see image).
Spaced out along the lower length of the fronds, are pale green, fan-shaped, toothed segments, paired alternately. About 2 cm x 2 cm they resemble butterfly wings, (see image), hence the origin of one of the common names.
The upper part of the fronds usually consists of the completely bare main stem called the rachis. This can extend like a slim wand, well beyond the segments, in fact, it frequently doubles its length. Arching over to touch the ground, the proliferous tip of the rachis often takes root. This produces a new necklace fern plant, hence the name, “walking fern”.
Reproduction
In the December 2015 articel, we described Asplenium bulbiferum, which has two methods of reproduction, and so does Asplenium flabellifolium. One of its methods is non-sexual, i.e., simply using the proliferating stem-tip as a 'planting tool', as you have just learnt. The other method is sexual, i.e., via the spores in the sori, on the undersides of the fan-shaped segments. (see inset).
When the mature necklace fern-spores fall to the ground, in moist conditions they develop into prothalli, then they undergo the complete fern life-cycle – see our article in the December Tramper.
Distribution
Found throughout in both North and South islands, as well as in Australia, necklace fern is one of several fern species tolerant of open, grassy or scrubby areas. You will find it more commonly in eastern areas, from North Cape to Invercargill, in lowland to lower- montane elevations.
Uses
We have seen no references to rongoā or other uses, for necklace fern.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 10, November 2015
November in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Asplenium flaccidum, Makawe o Raukatauri, Hanging spleenwort
 Asplenium flaccidum epiphytic on a tree trunk. Photo: Paul Newport, Hinewai Reserve |
In the October issue of The Tramper, we described Asplenium oblongifolium. In this issue we describe another common member of the Asplenium fern genus, Asplenuim flaccidum. The second part of its name refers to the naturally pendulous habit of its fronds. The Māori name means ‘the tresses on the head of Raukatauri, the atua / supernatural being’ who was believed to be the spirit of forest music. She is named after the flute-shaped cocoon of the case-moth caterpillar. Have you noticed those cocoons hanging from the trunks and branches of trees and shrubs?
No doubt you have seen this strikingly graceful fern hanging from a tree trunk, a branch, a tree-fern trunk, a rock face or a log on the forest floor. It is almost always epiphytic, i.e., perching on another plant, but it is not a parasite. You occasionally see it growing terrestrially, i.e., on the ground, where the wind carried its parent spore.
Distribution
Hanging spleenwort is common in a wide variety of habitats throughout NZ, from lowland to montane forests, rocky subalpine sites, and on coastal sites, from the Kermadecs and Three Kings, to Rēkohu / Chatham Island, Rakiura / Stewart Island and the Antipodes Islands. It is also native to Australia.
Form, size, reproduction
Its leathery fronds have a wide variety of forms. They are usually pendulous, up to 1.25 m long and 6-100 x 4-25 cm wide in forest sites, but on exposed sites, e.g., on the coast, are often shorter. Each frond comprises numerous narrow segments, which vary in shape, are dull green, toothed, and 2-20 x 0.5-2 cm. The segments bear the reproductive organs, sori, which form at the edges of the teeth. Spores, which develop within the sori, eventually ripen, then are carried by the wind to another location, where they may germinate.
Uses
We have been unable to find references to rongoā / medicinal or other uses for makawe o Raukatauri. Trampers use the plant’s attractive pendulous habit as a feature in their photographs of the plant itself, or as a point of interest in the foreground of a photograph of a forest scene.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 9, October 2015
October in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Having recently introduced you to some NZ conifers, we are now leaving that topic. Early last year we described five NZ tree ferns and this month we start on some NZ ground-fern species.
How do ferns differ from flowering plants?
There is a fundamental difference between ferns and flowering plants. A fern has neither flowers nor true leaves. Instead, it has fronds, which have a dual function – the upper surface of a frond converts visible light into energy, but if you turn it over, you will see that the underside has sori, containing spores, which are reproductive organs.
By contrast, flowering plants have true leaves, the sole function of which is to convert visible light into energy, and they have separate, specialised structures for reproduction, namely flowers.
Fern rhizomes
All ferns have a rhizome, which is defined botanically as a type of stem. Some fern rhizomes creep along the soil surface, e.g., kidney fern. Some ferns have a climbing rhizome, e.g., mokimoki, climbing hound's tongue. Some ferns have a tall, solid rhizome like a trunk, e.g., all tree ferns. Some fern species, e.g., our fern-of-the-month, shining spleenwort, has an erect, above-ground rhizome from which the fronds emerge above and roots develop below. Young fern fronds emerge tightly coiled in a koru shape, (of recent flag fame), an elegant growth form almost never seen in other plant groups.
 Asplenium oblongifolium Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
The Asplenium genus
The Asplenium genus is one of NZ's largest fern genera, with more than 20 species or sub-species. Derived from Greek, the name means 'no spleen', referring to an early belief that spleenworts provided a remedy for ailments of the spleen.
Asplenium oblongifolium, Huruhuru whenua, Shining spleenwort
This handsome endemic fern is common in a wide variety of sites and conditions, in coastal to lower montane areas in the North Island, and in coastal areas in the South Island as far south as Banks Peninsula and Greymouth. Look for it on rugged, coastal cliffs, open scrub, or deep in shady forest. Usually terrestrial, it is sometimes epiphytic. Its rhizome is densely covered in dark brown scales. In exposed, well-lit sites, the fronds are usually pale green. In shady forest the mature fronds are a glossy, dark green (see image) up to 1000 mm x 350 mm. Its 16-40 alternate segments are pinnately arranged and look just like leaflets. They are 40 – 250 mm x 10 - 40 mm, with slightly serrated margins and a fairly firm texture. Look at their undersides to see neatly parallel rows of sori, each up to 20 mm long, in a herringbone pattern, from which ripe spores are distributed by the wind. You may find it useful to remember that most species of Asplenium have a herring-bone pattern of sorts.
The species name oblongifolium refers to the generally parallel-sided frond segments that taper to points at their tips. Lastly, shining spleenwort's glossy fronds make it easy to identify. The Māori name huruhuru whenua is a metaphor for the body-hair of the land.
Uses
To some Māori, huruhuru whenua was sacred. Tōhunga / priests used it in some spiritual rituals. Māori would placate Tāne, god of the forest, by placing fronds of huruhuru whenua over the stumps of trees they had felled to make waka / canoes. They ate the koru/young shoots as a green vegetable, which William Colenso, an early missionary, described as succulent.
Cultivation
Huruhuru whenua is very easy to grow. Another pleasing feature of it is that it often self-sows in gardens and on road-side banks, its spores having been carried there by the wind. Look for it in lightly-shaded, damp sites in your garden – you may find that it has already arrived.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 1, February 2016
February in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Asplenium polyodon, petako, sickle spleenwort
In the December article, we described the fern Asplenium bulbiferum. This month's plant choice is another common member of the asplenium genus: Asplenium polyodon. ‘Polyodon’, derived from Greek, refers to the many teeth on the margins of the frond segments.
The name ‘spleenwort’, used in part of the names for several members of the Asplenium genus, refers to a first-century AD belief that spleenworts could cure enlarged spleens.
 Asplenium polyodon Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Form, size, habitats
On your tramps in the bush you will probably have noticed sickle spleenwort’s strikingly handsome, long, arching fronds, each with many segments. Petako grows on the trunks of trees and tree ferns, or on the forest floor, or may hang down from clumps of nest-epiphytes such as species of Astelia in the crowns of large forest trees. The hanging fronds, dark green and glossy above, paler and dull below, are 150-1000 x 70-250 mm, on stalks 100-400 mm long. You may also have seen stunted petako growing on rocky surfaces.
Look closely at a segment to see the many teeth mentioned in our first paragraph. Note that each tooth may have from one to as many as sixteen serrations. A vein curves from the mid-rib to the end of each serration.
Reproduction
The segments bear the reproductive organs, sori, up to 20 mm long, which form in lines along the veins which curve away from the mid-ribs of the segments. Spores, which develop within the sori, eventually ripen, and are then carried by the wind to another location, where they may germinate.
Distribution
Petako is common in lowland to montane forests in the North Island. In the South Island, it is mainly on the western side, although it also grows in a few sites from Banks Peninsula southwards. It occurs on the Kermadecs, The Three Kings, Rakiura / Stewart, and Rekohu / Chatham islands.
It also occurs in Australia, and is widespread in the tropics from Madagascar to the Pacific islands.
Uses
We have been unable to find any references to rongoā (medicinal uses) for petako - please tell us if you read or hear about any. How about photographing the fern to show its attractive, pendulous habit, or including it in the foreground of a forest scene.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 8, September 2018
September in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Astelia fragrans, kakaha, bush lily
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Astelia fragrans is another of the three commonly found species of Astelia in the Wellington region. Unlike A. solandri, described in the July Tramper, this species does not perch - it grows only on the ground.
Origin of the names
As stated last month, Astelia comes from the Greek words ‘a’ without, a ‘stele’ pillar, meaning ‘lacking a stem’; ‘fragrans’ means fragrant, referring to the sweet scent of the flowers. ‘Bush lily’ indicates that kakaha was once placed in the Liliaceae family. Taxonomists have since reassigned it to the closely related Asteliaceae family.
Distribution and habitat
Kakaha is endemic to New Zealand. It grows on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Waipounamu/South Island and on Rakiura/Stewart Island, in coastal to lower montane areas. It is rare in the northern half of the North Island. Look for it on wet boggy ground and on dry hillsides, mostly in forest or forest remnants.
Growth habit
Bush lily is an evergreen, perennial, herbaceous plant with a robust tufted appearance occurring as a single plant or in colonies, sometimes on hillsides. The leaves are 50 cm-250 cm long x 2.5 cm-7.5 cm wide, the lower half rising stiffly, the upper part drooping with the ends becoming very drawn out and narrow. The leaf bases are keeled, but not tightly folded. The upper sides of the leaves are green and smooth with one strong rib, sometimes reddish, on each side of the midrib. The undersides have prominent ribs/nerves, wider than the midrib, and are a slightly lighter green than the upper sides.
Reproduction
The arrangement of the flowers/inflorescence is erect and broad. The stout stalk/peduncle grows from the middle of the tuft in October to November, producing many small fragrant flowers. The male flowers are greenish fawn and the female flowers are dark green. On the female plants, the flowers develop into subglobose, fleshy orange fruits 4-9 mm x 4-9 mm, from December to May. Fruits are eaten by fruit-eating animals, e.g., birds, geckos and skinks which disperse the seeds.
Uses
Māori used kakaha, mixed with kiekie, flax (Tramper December 2012, pages 17 and 20) and pīngao, when plaiting kete/baskets to give different hues. In the 1962-1975 era, Wellingtonian Isobel M Morice examined the fatty acids of the seed oils of several monocotyledons. Later, S G Brooker found that up to 25% of the total seed oil of three Astelia species is γ-linoleic acid which has been promoted as a medication for pre-menstrual syndrome and multiple sclerosis.
Where to find Astelia fragrans?
You can see kakaha in the Tararua and Aorangi ranges, and along the Ōrongorongo and McKerrow tracks in the Remutaka Range. It occurs in ‘Post Office Bush’, Makara. It is uncommon in Centennial Reserve, Miramar. Look for it in Hayward Scenic Reserve, Lower Hutt, and East Harbour Regional Park, also in Barry Hadfield Nīkau Reserve, Paraparaumu.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 9, October 2018
October in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Astelia hastata, kahakaha, perching lily
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Astelia hastata is the last of the three species of Astelia found in the Wellington region which we will describe. Like A. solandri, described in the August Tramper, this species grows as a nest epiphyte, which means that it grows perching on other plants, usually on the forks of tall trees, or on rocks, hence its name – perching lily. If it falls to the ground, it may take root there.
Origin of the botanical name
Astelia comes from the Greek words ‘a’ without, a ‘stele’ pillar, meaning ‘lacking a stem’; ‘hastata’ comes from Latin ‘hastata’ meaning ‘spear’ or ‘lance’, which refers to the shape of the leaves. You may have learnt this plant by its former name, Collospermum hastatum. Taxonomists have recently assigned the species to the Astelia genus. Collospermum means ‘slimy seed’.
Distribution and habitat
Kahakaha is endemic to Aotearoa/NZ. It grows on Manawatāwhi/The Three Kings Islands, and on coastal and lowland sites on Te Ika a Māui/North Island and north of Kaikoura and Greymouth on Te Waipounamu/South Island.
Growth habit
Kahakaha/perching lily is a robust, tufted plant which often grows in large colonies, its roots wrapped around the branch of a host tree. It is an evergreen, perennial, herbaceous species. The thick, curved leaves are 60 cm-170 cm long x 3 cm-7 cm wide. Their upper surfaces are dull green. The upper parts of the undersides are bronze with dark-centred scales; the lower part is black, which makes the plant easy for you to identify at a distance, even when it is perched high on a tree.
Reproduction
The clusters of flowers, or inflorescences, are on stalks/peduncles which arch out from the fans of leaves. The female flowers, very pale cream, are in a cluster 20-30 cm long x 2.5 cm wide; the male flowers, cream, deeper yellow towards the base, are in a cluster 15-30 cm long x 3 cm wide. Female flowers and male flowers, on separate plants, appear from January to March. The female flowers are pollinated by insects, birds and pekapeka/bats. The spherical fruit, c. 4.5 mm in diameter, is translucent yellow-green, ripening to red. The dull black, ridged, egg-shaped seeds, c. 1.4 mm x 0.7 mm, are surrounded by a thick sticky substance called an aril. The fruit, which appears from March to August, is eaten by birds, geckos and skinks which disperse the seeds.
Uses
The berries are edible in autumn and winter.
Where to find Astelia hastata?
Look for kahakaha in Otari-Wilton’s Bush, Johnston Hill Reserve, ‘Post Office Bush’ at Makara, and East Harbour Regional Park. You can also see it in the Tararua and Remutaka ranges. It is uncommon in the Aorangi Range. Caution! Wi Parata Reserve, Waikanae, was closed during recent severe gales because clumps of ‘widow/widower-maker’ astelias had fallen from tall trees. Kāpiti Coast District Council closed it to prevent injury to walkers. Never camp under an epiphytic Astelia!
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 7, August 2018
August in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Astelia solandri, kōwharawhara, perching astelia
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Plants in the genus Astelia, like the plants mentioned in the first paragraph in the article on tūrutu/blueberry, are monocotyledons. This means that each seed produces one seed-leaf/cotyledon, not two. Thus the leaves have a similar form to those of tūrutu, i.e., long and narrow. Perching astelia is endemic and a member of the lily family.
Origin of the names
Astelia comes from the Greek words ‘a’ without, a ‘stele’ pillar, meaning ‘lacking a stem’; ‘solandri’ refers to Daniel Carl Solander, (1733-1782), Swedish botanist on Capt. Cook’s first voyage. The Te Reo name for the plant is ‘kōwharawhara’; ‘perching astelia’ is usually epiphytic, meaning that it often grows on another plant.
Distribution and habitat
Kōwharawhara grows on Te Ika a Māui/North Island and on Te Waipounamu/South Island, in wetter lowland forests as far as south Westland. Look for it growing on a tree, or sometimes on a bank, a rock, or even the forest floor.
Growth habit
Perching astelia is a robust, evergreen, perennial, herbaceous plant which resembles a small flax plant. The densely tufted leaves, 100-200 cm long x 2-3.5 cm wide, droop and at the base are tightly folded and covered with a fine whitish down. Their upper sides are bright green; their undersides are silvery. The mnemonic ‘s’ for ‘solandri’-‘s’ for ‘silver’ may help you - we find it useful! On either side of the midrib look for three less prominent ribs. Thin, grey, dead leaves hang from the plant’s base.
You will see big clumps of kōwharawhara perching on tree trunks or branches. It is classed as a ‘nest epiphyte’. It establishes extensive root systems among mosses and lichens in a branch forks or on a branch. As old roots die and decay, a spongy soil develops and absorbs rain water. This combined with water which collects at the leaves’ narrowed bases means that the plant can become very heavy. Beware – these often massive plants, and their supporting branches, may fall, hence their nick-name ‘widow(er)-maker’.
Reproduction
The many small, yellowish to maroon flowers, called tākahakaha, are sweetly scented. They appear October to June. Female and male flowers appear on separate plants. The many flowers crowd together to form an inflorescence 15-40 cm long which droops on a stalk/peduncle 30-100 cm long x 4-8 mm wide. Between January and December, the female flowers produce small, spherical berries, 4-5 mm in diameter, which vary from translucent green to yellowish brown. The seeds are less than 2 mm long, shiny and smooth.
Uses
Māori women used the silk-like down derived from the leaves’ outer membrane to decorate their hair and faces. It was also used to cover burns and scalds, and as padding under tōtara-bark splints used on broken bones. The leaves were waved during incantations for sick people, and people being tattooed. The leaves were wrapped around their feet in cold weather, and used for making shallow baskets. The fruit on female perching astelias are edible.
Oil derived from the seeds has been promoted as a potential treatment for multiple sclerosis, cardiovascular disease and diabetes. In summer, bees and flies seek the nectar.
Where to find Astelia solandri?
You can see kōwharawhara in Wellington Botanic Garden, Otari-Wilton’s Bush, other Wellington reserves and in Hutt Valley reserves. It also grows in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 2, March 2019
March in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Austroderia fulvida, toetoe, buff toetoe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the names
‘fulvida’ comes from the Latin word fulvidus meaning yellow-brown, tawny, hence the name buff toetoe.
Distribution
A. fulvida occurs in Te Ika a Māui/North Island. In Te Waipounamu/South Island it is rare in Nelson and Marlborough. It has been planted in many other parts of the South Island from where it may have escaped, e.g., on the Kaikōura coast and the Hundalees. Plants on D’Urville and Maud islands have been planted.
Habitat
Look for A. fulvida on the margins of streams, lakes and forests, in wet places and on hillsides up to 1300 m.
Growth habit
A. fulvida is a tall, stout tussock. Unlike most grasses, it has sharp-edged, flexible leaves. These are up to 2.5 m long x 2 cm wide. The leaf sheath covering the leaf below the joint with the leaf blade is ivory-coloured and waxy. Stroke it with a finger and feel the silky deposit. At the joint is a ligule, 1 mm high, a thin membranous projection partially surrounding the top of the leaf sheath, and at the base of this is a light-brown collar.
Reproduction
The kākaho/flowering stem, up to 3.5 m tall, bears a flower head up to 1 m long with drooping branches. The spikelets are up to 20 mm long and contain two or three florets and their chaffy bracts. Most florets are bisexual, but some are female only. Both may produce seeds. Like all grasses, buff toetoe is pollinated by the wind. Buf f toetoe flowers from late November to December, unlike A. toetoe (Feb 2019 Tramper) which flowers from January to February. This difference may help you to determine which toetoe you are looking at.
Where to find Austroderia fulvida
Look for this species of toetoe in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges, and on western Wellington’s hills.
Differences between toetoe and pampas grasses
Pampas species: The old leaf sheaths curl up like wood shavings at plant bases, and break into small sections. If you try to tear a leaf it should break. The predominant species’ white flowers appear late March to April, and purple pampas’ January to mid-March. The latter is easily distinguished by its purple plumes. The flowering heads are usually erect plumes. Native toetoe species: Old leaves or leaf sheaths of the species do not curl, but drop off. Leaves will not break when you try to tear them. Toetoe flower November to February and have drooping heads, except for A. toetoe. All have creamy, yellowish plumes.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 1, February 2019
February in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Austroderia toetoe, toetoe, plumed tussock, feathery grass
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the names
‘Austroderia’ means a southern form of Cortaderia. The name is based on the Spanish verb ‘cortar’, to cut, referring to the leaf margins; toetoe is the te reo Māori name for all of the five Austroderia species of these large grasses, and is the specific name for this species. Previously in the genus Cortaderia, the five native NZ species have now been placed in the genus Austroderia. All are endemic and two are found in the Wellington region - A. toetoe and A. fulvida. The two species of introduced and invasive pampas grasses in NZ remain in the genus Cortaderia.
Distribution
A. toetoe, the largest of our native grasses, grows only in southern Te Ika a Māui/North Island, from Wellington north to Rotorua and Tauranga. It is also naturalised from plantings in some other North Island locations.
Habitat
A. toetoe inhabits swamps, stream sides and wet places, from sea level to 800 m, often growing with flax/haraheke.
Growth habit
A. toetoe is a stout tussock, up to 4 m tall when in flower, with sharp-edged leaves (unusual in grasses generally). It bears a shining white kākaho/culm/ flowering stem with a large plumose panicle/ branched flower head. The leaf sheath covering the leaf below the joint with the leaf blade, is ivorycoloured and waxy. At the joint is a ligule, a thin membranous projection partially surrounding the top of the leaf sheath, up to 4 mm high, and at the base of this is a dark-brown collar. The leaf blade is about 2 m long x 3 cm wide, straw to light greencoloured. The rough, sharp margin is caused by rows of minute prickle-teeth.
Reproduction
The flower head/inflorescence is up to 1 m long, stiff, erect and densely plumose. The plumes are a creamy, yellowish colour. The spikelets, up to 25 mm long, contain two or three florets and their chaffy bracts. Most florets are bisexual, but some are female only. Both may produce seeds. The whole culm/flowering stem of this species is up to 4 m. Flowering is from late January to February.
Uses
Māori used toetoe leaves to make kete/baskets, kaiaia/kites, moenga/mats, wall linings, roof thatching and cylindrical tukohu/containers to cook food in hot springs. The flower stems, called kākaho, were used for house linings and for making arrows or spears for fishing and hunting. The flower stalks were also used as frames for kites, tukutuku/house panelling and also eaten as a food. The white plumes of the toetoe seed heads were compacted into a covering used to stop bleeding. Other rongoā/medicinal uses of the plant included treatment of toothache, diarrhoea, bladder, kidney complaints, intestinal parasites and burns. A paste made by mixing the ashes of burnt toetoe with water was used as a poultice on burns. You can use the plumes as an indoor decoration - they stay fresh for months.
Where to find Austroderia toetoe
Look for it in the Zealandia catchment, Makara Peak, Rangitatau Reserve on Miramar Peninsula, Huntleigh Park in Crofton Downs, western Wellington and in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 5, June 2019
June in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Beilschmiedia tawa, Tawa, Tawa
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Tawa is one of the two endemic NZ species in the genus Beilschmiedia, which belongs to the mostly tropical family Lauraceae (Laurel).
Origin of the botanical name
The Beilschmiedia genus is named after Karl Traugott Beilschmied (1793-1848), a Polish plant geographer; tawa is the Te Reo name of the tree and its purple fruits.
Distribution and habitat
Tawa is common on Te Ika a Māui/North Island and on Te Waipounamu/South Island in Nelson and Marlborough. Look for tawa in lowland to lower montane forest where it is often a dominant canopy tree. It also often occurs in close association with podocarps where it may be the dominant subcanopy tree.
Growth habit
Tawa is an evergreen tree up to 35 m tall. The single trunk is straight, smooth and up to 1.2 m in diameter, with dark bark. Its leaves, 5-10 cm x 1-2 cm, are willow-like, narrow, tapering at both ends, thin and smooth-edged. Their colour is pale green or green to yellow-green, and slightly paler, even bluish, underneath.
Reproduction
The small, rather insignificant pale green flowers have both male and female parts. They appear in spring on slender, smooth panicles up to 8 cm long growing straight out from the axils of leaves. Small native thrips pollinate the tiny flowers. The fruit, which ripen from summer to autumn, are a striking purple-black, date-like drupe, 2-3 cm long when ripe. There is one large hard seed surrounded by the fleshy covering in each fruit. These seeds or kernels are distributed by large birds such as kererū, which are large enough to ingest the fruits and excrete the seeds intact.
Uses
Māori used tawa kernels as food, after extensive steaming, soaking, storing and more steaming then pounding. This removed the slight flavour of turpentine from the pulp. They used the timber to make battens for the walls and roofs of whare, and for bird spears. Tawa wood is hard and resilient, so has been used for floor-boarding and feature panelling. The flesh of a ripe berry has a resinous, sweetish flavour. Decoctions of tawa bark have been used for coughs, colds and stomach ache.
Where to find Beilschmiedia tawa?
You can see tawa in tall forest, in for example, Khandallah Park, Huntleigh Park, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Hayward Scenic Reserve, Kaitoke Regional Park, Remutaka and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 9, October 2016
October in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Blechnum chambersii, nini, lance fern*
This is the seventh member of the Blechnum genus described in The Tramper. It is named in honour of Thomas Carrick Chambers, a former University of Auckland student, who studied the Blechnum genus for fifty years. He became Professor of Botany at Melbourne University, and later, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
 Nini: upright fertile fronds above sterile fronds Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Habitats
Nini is native to New Zealand, Australia and elsewhere in the Pacific. This wide-ranging fern often grows in dense, extensive colonies, which makes it a visually striking and photogenic feature of many moist, shady, stream-sides and gullies in our region and beyond. Look for this very common fern in lowland to montane forests up to 1.000m elevation throughout New Zealand, except in Otago's drier parts.
Form and reproduction
Nini has stout, erect, rhizomes from which its tufted fronds grow. As you have read in our previous six articles on members of the Blechnum genus, the sterile fronds are distinctly different from the fertile fronds. The dark green, smooth, sterile fronds are narrowly elliptic, 13-50 cm long x 1.5-12 cm wide, They each have 15-40 pairs of segments, the longest in the middle, 0.8-6 cm long x 0.4-1.2 cm wide. They are shorter and more rounded near the base of the frond. Their tips can be blunt or pointed, and their margins are slightly toothed. The bases of the segments are adnate, i.e., they are attached to the frond’s rachis by their whole width.
The fertile fronds, 15-20 cm long x 2-5 cm wide, are a little shorter and narrower than the sterile fronds. Their sori develop in two parallel lines, one on each side of the midrib on the underside of each of the very narrow segments. As the sori ripen and open, the spores they contain are released, then spread by the wind to germinate in a moist, shady site. They then undergo the complete fern life-cycle described in our December 2015 article.
Uses
Māori cooked young fronds of nini, and some other plants, in hangi/earth ovens, to eat as a green vegetable. Because nini is so widespread, it was, and is, easy to find for cooking. Our region has many steep, erosion-prone slopes with dense carpets of nini, which with other plant species, helps to protect the soil from the impacts of heavy rain.
Blechnum chambersii – where to look for it in our region Look for nini beside streams in Otari-Wilton’s Bush; Huntleigh Park; Khandallah Park, Centennial Reserve; the Botanic Garden’s native forest areas; Karori Sanctuary / Zealandia; East Harbour, Belmont and Kaitoke regional parks; Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 4, May 2016
May in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Blechnum colensoi, peretao, Colenso's hard fern
 Sterile peretao fronds with one fertile frond Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Many trampers are likely to be familiar with this handsome, endemic ground fern of wet gullies, often beside deeply shaded waterfalls where it is recognised by its large, glossy, deep-green, pendulous fronds hanging down steep banks.
Fronds
Like most Blechnum species, Blechnum colensoi's fertile fronds are very different from its sterile fronds. If you look at the image on this page, you will notice a very skinny, sinuous frond sprawling to the left, rather like a big green fish skeleton! This is the fertile frond, covered all over with green sori containing unripe spores, too tiny to be visible in this image.
When the spores ripen and fall to the ground, they will germinate and undergo the several stages of development into adult ferns, (e.g., prothallus; sexual differentiation; reproduction), which we described in the December 2015 Tramper.
Peretao's glossy, sterile fronds vary from 20 cm to one metre long and from 12-20 cm wide. Each frond usually has c. 10 pairs of broad, elliptic segments, each up to 20 x 4 cm, with a very firm, leathery texture and smooth margins which taper to a fine point at the tip. As you will notice in the image, an unusual feature of these segments is that they do not taper to join on to the frond's midrib, but are attached 'squarely' on to it by the whole width of their broad bases. This type of attachment is referred to as 'decurrent'.
Distribution
Peretao is common in wet, lowland to montane forests from Hokianga Harbour southwards, and also in the South, Stewart, Chatham and Auckland islands.
Uses
Peretao is a significant member of a specialised community of plants and animals which require high amounts of shade and ambient moisture to survive and thrive, e.g. mosses, liverworts, ferns and many other species. Its long, broad fronds provide shade and a splash-back surface which re-distributes falling water.
Its handsome, luxuriant appearance adds greatly to the beauty of waterfall sites with which it is so often associated, enhancing their appeal to trampers and tourists alike, especially when they can include this distinctive fern in their photographs. Some people even call it ‘waterfall fern’.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 3, April 2016
April in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Blechnum discolor, crown fern, piupiu
 Crown fern / piupiu Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
There are about twenty members of this fern genus in New Zealand. A striking feature of all Blechnum species is that their fertile fronds and sterile fronds usually look different from each other, with the fertile fronds being much narrower. The fertile fronds grow in the centre of the plants, with two lines of sori on the undersides of their narrow segments.
The name Blechnum is derived from the Latin word for ferns; discolor refers to the “two-coloured” feature of the sterile fronds - their upper and lower surfaces are differently coloured.
Distribution
Crown fern is endemic to New Zealand. It is common in drier lowland to montane forests, usually at higher elevations in the North Island. You can see it on the North, South, Stewart/ Rakiura, Chatham/Rekohu, Auckland and Campbell islands.
Form
Crown fern often forms woody trunks up to c.30 cm tall. The sterile fronds rise and spread out like a crown, while the stiffly upright fertile fronds grow up from the centre of the plant. The stalks of the sterile fronds are 5-16 cm long. The upper parts of the sterile fronds are 20-100 x 5-16 cm, bright green above, and much paler below.
If deer, goats or possums are numerous in the vicinity, crown fern may flourish because these pest animals rarely eat piupiu's harsh fronds. It often forms extensive patches in open beech forest and in scrub, because it spreads by means of runners. It often out-competes other plant species. You may have waded through such dense communities of it in shorts, that you are sure to have felt the rough texture of the sterile fronds!
Reproduction
The fertile fronds are slightly taller than the sterile fronds. The sori, in which the spores develop, are in continuous lines along both sides of the midrib of the fertile fronds. When ripe, the spores are distributed by the wind.
Uses
The light colour of the underside of the fronds shows up clearly in daylight, as well as in the light of your torch. You can turn over the ends of crown fern's sterile fronds to point out a temporary route. For example, you can turn them over to mark the route from your tent site to your toilet trench, or to the nearby creek. In order to implement the Minimum Impact Code, before you break camp, you have merely to unbend the fronds, and no one will know that you have been there.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 6, July 2016
July in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
 1. Juvenile thread fern Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Blechnum filiforme, pānako, thread fern, climbing hard fern
If you're tramping in forest and notice a fern climbing high on tree trunks, it's almost certainly pānako, Blechnum filiforme, the only blechnum species which is high-climbing. It is found in coastal and lowland forests in the North Island and the northern coast of the South Island. This NZ endemic fern is unique in having three types of fronds: juvenile; sterile adult and fertile adult.
1. Juvenile
On the ground, you will see some small, deep-green, juvenile fronds creeping over banks and rocks before beginning to climb. These little fronds are narrowly elliptic, usually no wider than 5 cm and only up to 25 cm long, with 15–20 pairs of coarsely-toothed segments either side, each only 5-25 x 2–8 mm. (See image no. 1).
2. Sterile adult
As pānako's thin, dark, scaly rhizome elongates itself and begins to climb vertically, clinging closely to the tree trunk, it sprouts dense trusses of adult, sterile fronds as it goes. These bright-green fronds get much bigger as they mature, often reaching c. 60 x 15 cm, and almost completely covering the tree trunk. They have up to 30 pairs of segments arranged pinnately on the rachis, (i.e., in pairs along the stem), each segment narrowly elliptic, toothed, stalked, up to 9 x 5 cm, and tapering to a fine point, rather like Asplenium polyodon. (See image, In The Hills February 2016).
 2. Sterile fronds beneath fertile fronds Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
3. Fertile adult
You may recall that the sterile fronds of all blechnum species are different from the fertile fronds. When pānako's growing tip has reached a height of c. 2 m up the tree trunk, it starts to produce its third type of frond. These are about the same size as the sterile ones, i.e., c. 60 x 15 cm, but otherwise they are completely different - delicate and fertile. Many fine, flexuous, thread-like strands sprout from each side of the rachis. (See image no. 2). They are so flimsy that even a light breeze causes them to quiver. Hence the names, “filiforme” and “thread fern”.
Reproduction
Despite their apparent fragility, these fertile fronds contain the spores, which ripen and reproduce as usual, via prothalli, etc., just as we have described for other ferns.
Uses
Pānako is highly decorative, adding its own distinctiveness and amenity to the forest ambience. Along with all other green plants, it contributes to the supply of oxygen. We do not know of any rongoā uses.
See also
| Blechnum chambersii | Nini | Lance fern | 2016-10 |
| Blechnum colensoi | Peretao | Colenso's hard fern | 2016-05 |
| Blechnum discolor | Piupiu | Crown fern | 2016-04 |
| Blechnum filiforme | Pānako | Thread fern; Climbing hard fern | 2016-07 |
| Blechnum fluviatile | Ray water fern | 2016-08 | |
| Blechnum novae-zelandiae | Kiokio | 2016-06 | |
| Blechnum penna-marina | Little hard fern; alpine hard fern | 2016-11 | |
| Blechnum vulcanicum | Korokio | Mountain hard fern | 2016-09 |
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 3, April 2016
August in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Blechnum fluviatile, kiwakiwa, ray water fern
Look for kiwakiwa when you are tramping - it is a distinctive ground fern, common throughout New Zealand, in lowland to montane forests, usually in damp, shaded areas, often beside waterways. Like all members of the Blechnum genus, its sterile fronds and fertile fronds are very different from each other. ‘Blechnum’ was the Greek name of a particular fern, and ‘fluviatile’, derived from Latin, means associated with rivers.
Form
 Kiwakiwa: upright, fertile fronds and spreading, infertile fronds Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Kiwakiwa‘s mature sterile fronds arise from the centre of a dense, flat, rosette of juvenile fronds. When mature, they are 15-75 cm long x 2-6 cm wide, with 20-60 pairs of crowded, rounded, dark-green segments, all about 10-30 x 8-12 mm. The stalks and rachises (the part of the frond bearing the segments) are covered in dark-brown scales. The fertile fronds are upright, arise from the centre of the plant, and are similar in length, or slightly longer, than the sterile fronds.
Reproduction
The sori, which contain the spores, develop on one side of each fertile frond. At first the sori are green, but as they ripen, they turn brown and release their spores, which can be carried a considerable distance by the wind. When a sorus (singular of sori) lands, it forms a prothallus, and if the conditions are right, i.e., moist and shaded, it will develop into a young kiwakiwa. (See our article on the complete fern life-cycle in the December 2015 article).
Uses
A rāhui is a sign, or a symbol, to warn people that something in the immediate vicinity, e.g. a crop of ripening kūmara, should not be approached, except by certain authorised people. To warn of the presence of a rāhui, a tohunga would choose a site in the vicinity for a post to be placed, then attach to it a few fronds of e.g. kiwakiwa, or some other item, and recite incantations over it, to imbue it with magical powers of protection.
Because of kiwakiwa’s particularly bitter flavour, Māori women sometimes used it as a rongoā, rubbing its crushed fronds on their breasts to wean children who were reluctant to give up the breast.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 5, June 2016
June in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Blechnum novae-zelandiae, kiokio
Distribution
Kiokio is endemic to New Zealand. You are sure to have seen this common fern, the largest member of the Blechnum genus, and one of our larger ground-dwelling ferns. It grows on the Kermadecs, Three Kings, North, South, Stewart/Rakiura, Chatham/Rekohu, Auckland, Campbell and Antipodes islands. You will see kiokio throughout its widespread range: lowland to subalpine forest, boggy to dry open ground, and even rocky places. It often forms dense colonies in gullies and on track-side banks. It is particularly abundant on road cuttings on the West Coast, where it helps to prevent severe erosion during rain-storms.
Form
 Kiokio – four fronds, three sterile, one fertile Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Kiokio has a short-creeping rhizome. The stalk (stipe), 8-70 cm long, is stout, pale brown, and covered with pale-brown scales with dark centres.
The sterile fronds are green on top, paler green underneath, harsh to your touch and from 20-250 x 8–60 cm. They have 10-50 fine-toothed, segments, crowded in pairs and attached to the stem (rachis), which has scales similar to those on the stalk. You may notice that young kiokio fronds are often tinged with red or pink, thought to be a protection against strong ultra-violet light.
Kiokio's fertile fronds are quite different from its sterile fronds, a characteristic of the Blechnum genus, as you read in the April 2016 article. They are 15-50 cm or more long and 8-20 cm wide. You will see on the top right of the image a fertile frond, with numerous pairs of black, wire-like, fertile segments, and below them, about eight pairs of sterile segments.
Reproduction
Sori, which bear the spores, cover the undersides of the segments. When the sori mature, the spores within them ripen and are spread by the wind, to germinate and produce more kiokio. In the December 2015 article is a description of the several stages of the development of adult ferns.
Uses
Kiokio koru/fiddleheads are edible, raw or cooked. Māori used to wrap vegetables, e.g., kumara, in kiokio fronds, to add flavour to the hangi.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 10, November 2016
November in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Blechnum penna-marina, little hard fern; alpine hard fern
We do not know of a Māori name for this fern species, so if you know one, please tell us. Penna is a Latin word for feather, and marina means 'belonging to the sea'. Our fern this month is named after a primitive marine animal, Pennatula, commonly called sea-pen, a slender polyp, shaped just like one of Blechnum penna-marina's stiff, narrow, parallel-sided fronds. Now after that brief, mind-stretching saunter into the animal kingdom, let's get back on the track to plants!
 Blechnum penna-marina: Two tall fertile fronds, at different stages of development, arise from a dense bed of green sterile fronds Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Distribution and habitat
In New Zealand, this dainty but tough little fern is much less common in the North Island than the South Island. Look for it in coastal areas, in light scrub and bush margins, then follow it up into tussock grassland, alpine herbfields, fellfields and shaded outcrops, right up to snowy summits, where it occurs in reduced form at up to 2000 m or to even higher elevations, in the Southern Alps. It also occurs on Stewart, Chatham, Auckland, Campbell and Antipodes islands. Further afield, it is found on Macquarie Island, Australia, South America, and several circum-polar islands.
Rhizome
The black, twig-like, widely-creeping, rhizome sprouts tufts of narrow, erect, parallel-sided, dark green fronds at intervals.
Growth habit
Alpine hard fern carpets the ground with close-growing fronds. The sterile fronds range from 3-25cm long x 0.6-2.5 cm wide, with thin, black-brown stipes (lower stems) of 2–17 cm, scaly at the base. The upper stems (rachises), are yellowish-brown with a strongly grooved midrib. Their 20-40 close-set pairs of narrow, bronze-green, sterile pinnae (segments), are arranged neatly in alternate pairs, with rounded or pointed tips. Their bases are adnate, i.e., attached to the rachis by their own whole width, with no 'stalk'.
The fertile fronds are similar, usually almost twice as tall as the sterile ones, with pairs of even narrower, curved pinnae, much more widely spaced on the rachis. (See image).
Uses
Blechnum penna-marina is a hardy, neat little creeping fern which makes excellent ground-cover for a damp spot. We do not know of any rongoā uses.
During the 1980s, the Levin Horticultural Centre, (Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries), in collaboration with the DSIR and the NZ Nurserymen's Association, conducted research on numerous NZ plant species, one of which was Blechnum penna-marina. This was because there were extensive, lucrative markets for NZ plants, in Europe, USA and Japan. Scientific evidence of the frost-resistance potential of these plants was critically important, indicative of their ability to survive the severe winters they would experience when they were exported and marketed there as pot-plants or garden plants. (This information was taken from Economic Native Plants of NZ, Brooker, Cambie, Cooper, DSIR, 1988.)
Some Wellington sites
Look for Blechnum penna-marina on Wellington's rugged south-west peninsula, from near the coast, right up to the summits. We have recorded it beside Hawkins Hill Rd, Terawhiti Station (lower Oteranga Valley, and head of Waiariki Valley) and on Long Gully Station. In WCC's Te Kopahou Reserve, it occurs in the lower Waipapa Valley and its true right tributary valley, and in Spooky Gully/Hāpe Stream.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 8, September 2016
September in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Blechnum vulcanicum, korokio, mountain hard fern
This fern derives its name from the volcanic region in Java where it was first collected. Found in the North, South, Stewart and Chatham islands, it is also in Australia, New Guinea, Indonesia, Philippines and elsewhere in the Pacific.
In NZ, korokio is much more common in the lowland and montane areas of the South Island than in the North Island, where you may find it in scattered localities in lowland and montane areas. Wellington trampers are more likely to see this fern out in the open, on banks and in road cuttings, but not often in forest. Listed below are Wellington sites where Chris and I have seen it.
 Blechnum vulcanicum – sterile fronds, plus some fertile fronds. Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
The rhizome is more often erect than creeping. The sterile fronds are light green; up to 35x14 cm, elliptic or narrowly triangular in shape, with a slightly harsh texture and hairs on the underside. The segments are in 10–25 opposite pairs, with the longer pairs nearer the base of the frond. You will see that the segments have no 'stalks' so they are described as 'adnate',which means 'attached to the frond's rachis by their own whole width'. Their margins are finely serrated, and may be pointed or blunt-ended. The most obvious and useful clue to identify korokio, is that the basal pair of segments points distinctly downwards, like an inverted 'v' (see image). This makes korokio easy to identify.
The fertile fronds are c.40 cm long, with scales at the base of the stipe (stem). As the frond matures, its many pairs of fine, linear, (very skinny) pairs of segments develop sori, (similar to e.g., Blechnum filiforme), and begin the process of reproduction. For identification, the basal pair of segments points downwards in an inverted 'v', just as the segments on the sterile fronds do.
Some Wellington sites
If you are tramping in the Wellington area, look for korokio on banks beside Hawkins Hill Road, as well as in the Waipapa and Waiariki valleys and Spooky Gully, and in the west, on Outlook Hill. It also occurs in East Harbour Regional Park, e.g., on Muritai and McKenzie tracks, and the upper Wainuiomata and Ōrongorongo valleys. Please let us know if you find korokio anywhere else.
Uses
We have not found any references to rongoā (medicinal) or other uses, for korokio.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 10(approve sites), November 2012
November in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Brachyglottis repanda, Rangiora, Trampers' friend
 Brachyglottis repanda, Rangiora Jeremy Rolfe |
At the time of writing, large, dense clusters of tiny rangiora flowers in bud are appearing at the margins of bush and scrub, like pale, creamy-green froth, against the large, dark green glossy leaves. By the time you read this, the flowers will have produced seeds, carried by tiny white parachutes, to germinate wherever.
World-renowned botanist/ecologist Leonard Cockayne, (1855 – 1934), expressed surprise to find that among the world's approximately 1,500 members of the daisy (Asteraceae) family, NZ had so many tree and shrub daisies, (e.g. rangiora), an unusual phenomenon because most daisy species are herbaceous.
All daisies have 'composite' flowering parts - they comprise two types of flowers: (1) tiny, com- pacted, disc florets in the centre, and (2) a separate ring of florets, (each with one, large, showy petal), called ray florets, around the outside of the disc. Each type is a complete, functioning flower in itself.
Rangiora occurs in the North Island, and the South Island as far south as Kaikoura and Greymouth. A shrub or small tree, up to 6 m or more tall, it is a colonising species that grows in coastal and lowland forest, forest margins and shrub lands.
Rangiora's medicinal properties were well used by Māori and European settlers alike, the name itself being associated historically with lightness, brightness and health, as in the whakatauki, “Rangiora - he tohu mo te ora, (Rangiora, emblem of life and health)”. Yet, like many other rongoā (medicinal) plants, and other forms of ancient and contemporary medicine, it must be used with knowledge and skill,. For example, it is only the upper, green surface of rangiora leaves that is such an effective antiseptic poultice when bound over wounds, but taken internally, rangiora and its honey, are reputed to be very poisonous. In early times, a gum exuded by rangiora was a popular breath-sweetener when chewed (especially after a meal of whiffy dried shark), but if swallowed it could be fatal.
In some districts, rangiora is still called 'pukapuka', a word which already existed in te reo Māori in early times, meaning 'flat' or 'expanded', referring to the leaves, which can be be as big as 30 x 20 cm. Contrary to some beliefs, 'puka' is not a transliteration of the word 'book'. When pākeha settlers introduced books and paper, Māori extended the epithet 'puka', or the more emphatic 'pukapuka', to refer to these completely new items of communication which so resembled the underside of rangiora leaves.
Because of their size and the softness of the tomentum beneath, the leaves were often used to wrap newborns. - nature's own nappies, you might say. Trampers reckon they are the best-ever Nature Wipe, hence its well-known nickname 'trampers' friend' - don't forget to bury it though.
When off track, trampers may need a way of marking their otherwise unmarked route for a safe return. The judicious use of rangiora leaves laid on the ground, white-side-up, under a stone, or leafy rangiora twigs simply bent over to show their white underside, can be a very useful guide even at night, just as crown fern fronds and silver fern fronds are. Likewise, for an observant tramper following late behind a group, a small stick thrust through a turned-over rangiora leaf or even a message written on its underside, can indicate the direction in which to travel. Rangiora is indeed a tramper's good friend.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 5(approve sites), June 2012
June in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Carex uncinata, Matau a Māui, Hooked sedge, hook grass, bastard grass
Although we trampers often call this native plant ‘hook grass’, or ‘bastard grass’, it is not a grass, but a member of the sedge family. Check the stems of sedges – they are triangular in cross-section. Hence the saying ‘sedges have edges’. The stems of grasses are round in cross-section.
There are 32 members of the Uncinia genus in New Zealand, all referred to as ‘hooked sedges’. Uncinia uncinata grows in forests in the North, South, Stewart, Chatham, and Sub-Antarctic islands, and in Hawaii. It is common in coastal to montane forests and scrub, and occasionally in bogs and swamp margins, up to 900 m above sea level.
Alongside tracks in the Tararua and Aorangi ranges, and in our regional parks, look for its dense tufts of grass-like, rough-edged, dark green, occasionally reddish green, leaves, 2 - 5 mm wide, and 10 - 45 cm or more long. In summer, the flower stalks, 10 – 90 cm long, rise from the tight clumps of leaves.
Most trampers will have noticed and probably cursed this plant! The tiny, hooked and barbed end of each seed snags on socks, hair, bird feathers, e.g., kiwi, weka, toutouwai / robin, and the coats of animals. Later, in a different place, when you, a bird, or an animal, pull off the seeds, or they simply fall off, the plant has succeeded in distributing its seed - a reason why hooked sedge is often found along the edges of tramping tracks. Check the paths in your garden – you may find a hooked sedge growing there, its seed having fallen off your socks or legs. If so, you have unwittingly aided the spread of a native plant onto your property. Chris has several examples of these ‘hitch-hikers’ flourishing on his property.
One Māori name for this plant is matau a Māui (Māui’s hook), referring to the legendary ancestor, Māui, learning from his mother about the effectiveness of a barbed hook for spearing birds. Māui is also credited with inventing the barbed fish-hook, which he used to catch and haul up Te Ika a Māui, ‘the fish of Māui’, the North Island.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 1, February 2022
February in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Carpodetus serratus, Putaputawētā, marble leaf
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical, te reo and common names
‘Carpodetus’ is derived from the Greek words ‘carpos’ meaning ‘fruit’ and 'detos’ meaning ‘bound together’, referring to the fruit capsule being bound together by part of the calex limb; ‘serratus’ comes from the Latin word ‘serratus’ meaning shaped like a saw. The species is a member of the Rousseaceae family. The te reo name, putaputawētā, means ‘wētā holes’. The holes are created in the trunks of the trees by caterpillars of pūriri moths. Wētā may occupy those holes after the moths have left. 'Marble leaf' refers to the mottled appearance of each leaf.
Distribution and habitat
Putaputawētā is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows in coastal and lowland forests and on stream-sides on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rakiura / Stewart Island.
Growth habit
Putaputawētā is a tree that grows to 10 m or more tall. The trunk, up to 20 cm or more in diameter, is often covered by lichens and riddled with holes made by caterpillars of pūriri moths. The bark is brown. The branches of saplings and young trees may be in horizontal tiers. Young plants have slender, zigzag branchlets which are almost entangled / divaricating. The adult leaves are 4-6 x 2-3 cm, ovate or broadly elliptic, thinly leathery, finely serrate and often beautifully mottled, sometimes yellowish, with the green, darker primary and side veins clearly evident. The leaves grow on slender stalks / petioles about 1 cm long.
Reproduction
The sweet-smelling flowers, 5-6 mm across, appear in branched groups. The petals are white, oval-shaped and 3-4 mm long. Flowering is from November to March. The spherical fruit, changing from green to dark purple then black when ripe, appear from January to April or even as late as August. The ripe, dry capsule releases small seeds when it decays or after being eaten by birds.
Uses
The ripe black fruit of putaputawētā have been used to make a dye to colour wool. A chrome mordant with the fruit produces a green dye. The wood, strong and elastic, was valued by early settlers for making tool handles, fence railings and furniture.
Where can you find putaputawētā?
Look for it in reserves in Wellington and the Hutt Valley, and in the Remutaka, Tararua and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 96, # 2, March 2024
March in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Clematis forsteri, Pikiarero, pōānanga, puataua, puawānaga, Forster’s clematis, small white clematis
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Clematis is derived from the Greek word ‘klema’ meaning ‘a vine-branch’ or ‘a pruned twig’; forsteri comes from J R and J G A Forster, German father and son botanists on Captain Cook’s second voyage to New Zealand in 1773. The genus is a member of the Ranunculaceae family which, in addition to many introduced garden plants, is represented in New Zealand by many buttercup species.
Distribution and habitat
Forster’s clematis is endemic to Aotearoa. It is found in lowland forest and forest margins, cliffs, open spaces and stream-sides, from north of Auckland south to northern Westland and Canterbury.
Growth habit
Forster’s clematis is a small, slender, woody vine / liane up to 10 m tall with main stems up to 5-10 cm diameter at the base. The branchlets are grooved and glabrous / hairless. The opposite leaves are trifoliate on twining petioles / stalks 4-6 cm long with petiolules 1.5-2 cm long. To climb, the plant's leaf stalks twine around other plants. The leaflet blades are bright green to grey-green with paler undersides, thin to thick, narrow to broadly ovate but very variable, almost always lobed, toothed or deeply dissected with a flat base. The leaflet apex usually comes to a short point. Leaflets are about 3-8 x 1-4.5 cm, larger and thinner for juveniles.
Reproduction
The star-shaped, spice-scented flowers are greenish-white to pale green all over. They are borne in panicles, have no petals, but have 5-8 rather narrow, 2 x 0.5 cm, petal-like sepals. Flowers are unisexual and on separate plants, the male flowers being larger at up to 4 cm wide. Pollination is by pollen-collecting bees. At fruiting, the female part develops a long, curved, feathery tip about 3 cm long, as the seed develops into a dry single-seeded fruit dispersed by wind. These form drooping, thin and sparsely, beard-like clusters from each flower. Flowering is September to March, fruiting October to April.
Uses
Clematis flowers have been used for female head-dresses. A decoction of the bark and stems of the pikiarero and the root of the tātarahake (Coprosma acerosa) has been taken as an alternative medicine and leaves have been used by Māori as a blister or counter-irritant. Leaves have been crushed and rubbed on breasts to wean a child from the breast. Stem sap has been blown onto horse wounds. Some pā ramparts (Tapatahi pā at Waipiro and the Orongo-iri pā) are said to be composed of stones with clay worked in between them. Pieces of aka pōānanga (Clematis vine) were mixed with the clay to bind the fabric. Such a wall was called koperu or parihi.
Where can you find Forster’s clematis?
Look for it in Te Kopahou Reserve, Mākara area, Island Bay, Huntleigh Park Reserve, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Wainuiomata and Ōrongorongo catchments, Horoeka Scenic Reserve and the Akatarawa, Aorangi and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 11, December 2023
December in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Clematis paniculata, Puawānanga, white clematis
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Clematis is derived from the Greek word ‘klema’ meaning ‘a vine-branch’ or ‘a pruned twig’; ‘paniculata’ is derived from Latin words meaning ‘bearing panicles, loose clusters of flowers’. The genus is a member of the Ranunculaceae family which, in addition to many introduced garden plants, is represented in New Zealand by many buttercup species.
Distribution and habitat
Puawānanga is endemic to Aotearoa. It is found in lowland and lower montane forests, especially marginally, from Manawatāwhi/Three Kings Island to Rakiura/Stewart Island and is naturalised on Rekohu/Chatham Island.
Growth habit
Puawānanga is a woody vine/climber using other plants for support by twining and winding itself up into and over other foliage. The main stems can be up to 20 cm at the base, with bark grey-brown and furrowed. The branchlets are stout, pliant and glabrous. The leaves are trifoliate on petioles up to 4 cm long with petiolules 1-2 cm long. The leaf blades are dark green, thick, shiny, ovate with a flattish base. The leaf apex is sometimes lobed, more usually so in juvenile leaves. Leaflet size is variable (5-)-7-13-(10) × 6-12 (-19) cm, as are leaf margins, being usually smooth in adults to often slightly scalloped in juveniles. The petioles and petiolules often twine around host plants.
Reproduction
The white star-shaped, yellow-centred flowers make puawānanga one of the most showy species in our native flora, the white clusters standing out amongst green bush. They are borne in panicles, have no petals, but have 4-8 large, 4 x 1 cm, petal-like, white sepals. Flowers are unisexual and on separate plants, the male flowers being larger. Both male and female parts are numerous. Pollination is by pollen-collecting bees. At fruiting, the female part develops a long, curved, feathery tip 4 – 6.5 cm long, as the seed develops into a dry single-seeded fruit dispersed by wind. These form drooping, beard-like clusters from each flower. Flowering is June to November, fruiting October to January.
Uses
Puawānanga flowers are said to produce fine honey. Inhaling the aroma of bark and wood shavings has been used for head colds. Leaves have been applied to reduce irritations, and sap from short lengths of stem has been blown onto wounds. The vine has also been included in a decoction with certain other native species for blood disorders. Women made wreaths and garlands for their hair.
Where can you find puawānanga?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, most mature Wellington bush reserves and secondary growth, Regional Parks and in the Remutaka, Aorangi, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
Notes:
Clematis vitalba, old man’s beard, can be distinguished from the native species by having five leaflets on each petiole and by being deciduous. Puawānanga is one of ten Te Reo Māori names for the species.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 6, July 2021
July in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Coprosma areolata, , Thin-leaved coprosma
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
!!!! Origin of the botanical names ‘Coprosma’ is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, because one of the Coprosma species has an unpleasant smell; ‘areolata’ comes from the Latin word ‘areolus’ meaning ‘open space’ – it refers to the mottled appearance of the leaves. C. areolata is in the same genus as the species of Coprosma described in the last seven issues of the Tramper. The Coprosma genus is a member of the coffee family, the Rubiaceae.
Distribution and habitat
C. areolata is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, on Te Waipounamu / South Island and on Rakiura / Stewart Island. Look for it in lowland to lower montane forest.
Growth habit
Coprosma areolata is a shrub or small tree up to 3–6 m tall with smooth grey bark. The branches are slender and often more or less erect and close to the trunk. The branchlets have fine hairs. The slightly leathery, hairless, rounded leaves, 8-13 x 8-10 mm, with pointed tips, are clustered in opposite pairs on slender, winged, hairy petioles / stalks 3-7 mm long. The reticulated veins are dark on both sides of the leaves giving them a mottled appearance.
Reproduction
Female flowers and male flowers grow on separate plants. The tiny flowers which appear in spring are solitary or 2-4 together at the end of short branchlets. The 4-5 mm diameter fruit / drupe is dark purple to almost black. Birds eat the fruit then spread the seeds.
Uses
Coprosma areolata has been used to produce a direct dye which does not require a mordant.
Where can you find Coprosma areolata?
Look for this species in Paekākā / Wellington Botanic Garden, Burrows Avenue and Johnston Hill reserves, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush and in the Akatarawa, Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
The Coprosma genus.
Articles in The Tramper describe eight of the fifty-eight species in the genus. Many of the others which have tiny leaves are described by Hugh Wilson in his book Small-leaved Shrubs of New Zealand, Manuka Press, 1993. Look for it in second-hand bookshops.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 5, June 2021
June in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Coprosma foetidissima, Hūpiro, Hūpirau-ririki, naupiro, Stinkwood
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Coprosma’ is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, because this Coprosma species in particular has an unpleasant smell; ‘foetidissima’ comes from the Latin word for stinking. C. foetidissima is in the same genus as the species of Coprosma described in the last six issues of the Tramper. Some Te Reo Māori names are occasionally applied to various Coprosma species. The Coprosma genus is a member of the coffee family, the Rubiaceae.
Distribution and habitat
C. foetidissima is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island from Moehau southwards, on Te Waipounamu / South Island, on Rakiura / Stewart Island and the Auckland Islands. Look for it in coastal to subalpine forest, shrubland and occasionally grasslands.
Growth habit
Coprosma foetidissima is a slender, twiggy shrub or small tree up to 3 m tall, but can reach 6 m, with dark brown bark. The branches are rather brittle and open with smooth branchlets. The leaves are 30-50 x 14-20 mm and pale to medium green. They are membranous to almost leathery, of variable broadly ovate shape, tapering at both ends. The leaf tip may be blunt or sharp. The leaf base becomes a gradually narrowing winged stalk/petiole 8-15 mm long. This type of leaf base shape is referred to as being spathulate/spoon-shaped. When leaves are crushed or warmed up in summer, a strong, unpleasant sulphurous, rotten eggs or dung smell is unmistakable. This is a useful feature for identification. Reticulations of veins are faintly visible on the underside. The stipules between the leaves are truncate with a usually conspicuous long denticle in the middle and only minute teeth on the edges.
Reproduction
Female flowers and male flowers grow on separate plants. The pale green flowers are single, developing on the end of short branchlets. Flowering is from October to November and fruiting from March to July. The fruit is pale to full orange, 7-10 mm, oblong and tastes horrible. Birds eat the fruit and disperse the seeds.
Uses
As with some other Coprosma species, fast dyes have been obtained from the bark and berries.
Where can you find Coprosma foetidissima?
Look for this species in Otari Native Botanic Garden and Wilton’s Bush Reserve, in Akatarawa,Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges, particularly in sub-alpine bush.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 3, April 2021
April in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Coprosma grandifolia, Kanono, manono, raurekau, large-leaved coprosma
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Coprosma’ is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, as one Coprosma species in particular has an unpleasant smell; ‘grandifolia’ comes from the Latin ‘grandis’ meaning ‘large-leaved’. In some texts published about 30-60 years ago, you will find the name ‘australis’. This name was deemed to be taxonomically incorrect under botanical naming rules and the earlier name was retained. More recently, some taxonomists have considered this name to be incorrectly published and that this species should be renamed ‘autumnalis’ in line with the earliest description. But it is more likely ‘grandifolia’ will be conserved under a formal case to have it retained. You can see how confusing naming can become! C. grandifolia is in the same genus as the four species described in the last four issues of The Tramper. It is the largest-leaved Coprosma in New Zealand. The Coprosma genus is a member of the coffee family, the Rubiaceae.
Distribution and habitat
Kanono is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island and on Te Waipounamu / South Island as far as Lake Ianthe in the west and Marlborough Sounds in the east. Look for it in the forest understorey and in sheltered shady sites from the coast to montane and cloud forest. In areas of high rainfall can be a major component of shrublands, and within regenerating forest. It is often common along the margins of logging tracks and roads.
Growth habit
Kanono is a shrub or small tree to 7 m tall. The trunk is single or branched from the base. The branches and branchlets are smooth and stout, the branchlets often mottled and sometimes flattened between the leaves. The oval leaves are membranous to sub-coriaceous / leathery, dull glossy green or green mottled with maroon or purple above, paler beneath,10–30 cm x 5-10 cm, opposite, on smooth petioles / stalks 2-3 cm long. Leaf margins are sometimes slightly waved. Leaf veins / reticulations are conspicuous on both surfaces. The interpetiolar stipules are large, black and rather triangular.
Reproduction
Unlike the other large-leaved Coprosma species, flowering of kanono is from March to June and fruiting October to January. The pale green flowers develop in clusters on three-forked flower stalks. The fruit, on the female form of the plant, is reddish orange, oblong, 7-9 mm long. Birds eat the fruit and disperse the seeds.
Uses
The berries can be eaten. As a medicinal plant, uses include: bruising or crushing the bark to apply to wounds; boiling the bark for an infusion for aches, pains and broken limbs; boiling leaves and cut twigs for an infusion for cuts, sores, bruises and boils. The pulverised bark has been used for dying - a mordant is not needed. As a domestic plant, the leaves have been used for sitting and sleeping places. As an aid for fishing and hunting, leaves have been used as a pepe or call-leaf to attract birds. Like other Coprosma species with big leaves, kanono is browsed by deer and goats.
Where can you find Coprosma grandifolia?
Look for kanono in reserves in Wellington city, East Harbour Regional Park, Akatarawa Forest and in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 1, February 2021
February in the hills with Chris Horne, Michele Dickson
Coprosma lucida, Karamū, shining karamū
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Coprosma’ is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, as one Coprosma species in particular has an unpleasant smell; ‘lucida’, meaning ‘shining, glistening’, comes from the Latin word ‘lux’ meaning ‘light’. Coprosma lucida is called karamū, as is C. robusta described in the December 2020 Tramper.
Distribution and habitat
C. lucida is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, on Te Waipounamu / South Island and on Rakiura / Stewart Island. Look for it on forest margins.
Growth habit
This species of karamū is a shrub or small tree to 6 m tall with reddish brown bark. The branches are spreading, stout and hairless. The leaves which are opposite, thick, leathery and glossy dark green above, paler below, 8-17 x 3-4 cm, are wider towards the end. The leaf midrib on the upper surface is raised - feel it with a finger. Run a finger along a leaf margin – it feels smooth, unlike in C. robusta. The rather stout leaf petioles (stalks) are 10–30 mm long. The stipule between the base of each pair of petioles has small brown glands at the tip, not black as in C. robusta.
Reproduction
The densely clustered flowers are in small groups with female and male flowers appearing on separate plants. The berry is dark orange to red, 8-12 x 4-5 mm. Birds eat the berries on the female form of the plant and disperse the seeds.
Uses
There are many references to customary and medicinal uses of this species of karamū. See Māori Healing and Herbal – New Zealand Ethnobotanical Sourcebook. Murdoch Riley / Brian Enting, pp 178-182. 1997. Viking Sevenseas Ltd. Sample the taste of a ripe berry.
The role of birds
Birds eat the berries on the female plant then disperse the seeds.
Where can you find Coprosma lucida?
Look for this species of karamū in some reserves in the Wellington region and in the Tararua and Remutaka ranges. It is uncommon in the Aorangi Range.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 2, March 2021
March in the hills with Chris Horne, Michele Dickson
Coprosma propinqua agg., Mingimingi, mingi, miki,
* mingi1.jpg (Coprosma propinqua with fruit. ?N Photo: Jeremy Rolfe) Δ
- mingi2.jpg (Coprosma propinqua on the left; hybrid with C. robusta on right. ?N Photo: Jeremy Rolfe) Δ
Origin of the botanical names
‘Coprosma’ is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, as one Coprosma species in particular has an unpleasant smell; ‘propinqua’ comes from the Latin ‘propinquus’ meaning ‘near, close by’, implying close resemblance to another, e.g., C. propinqua resembles C. parviflora. The suffix ‘agg.’ indicates that there a number of subspecies of the plant. C. propinqua is in the same genus as the two species of karamū and taupata described in the last three issues of the Tramper. Note that the Te Reo names are applied to some other species with small narrow leaves. The Coprosma genus is a member of the coffee family, the Rubiaceae.
Distribution and habitat
C. propinqua is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, on Te Waipounamu / South Island and on Rakiura / Stewart Island. Look for it in coastal to lowland rocky and gravelly places, shrubland, forest, swamps and bogs.
Growth habit
Coprosma propinqua is a shrub or small tree to 6 m tall. The trunk is single or branched from the base and is sometimes flattened or prostrate. The bark may be pale or dark grey and be from smooth to fairly rough. The branchlets are divaricating / intertangled. This feature, exhibited by numerous native species, is believed by some scientists to be a response to browsing by moa; others suggest it developed in response to climate change during the Ice Age, sheltering the leaves from gales, drought and frost. In either case the tiny leaves, 7-16 mm x 2-5 mm, got some protection from the form. A moa would be deterred by the tiny leaves and the entanglement of branchlets – the latter would provide some protection for the leaves from harsh weather. The leaves,10–14 mm x 2–3 mm are opposite, or in opposite bunches, on slender hairy petioles / stalks 1-2 mm long. The leaves are leathery, dark green above and paler below.
Reproduction
The flowers develop on the end of short branchlets; the females are single and the males usually in small clusters, growing on separate plants. The fruit, on the female form of the plant, is usually blue, 8-12 mm x 4-5 mm. Birds eat the fruit and disperse the seeds. Sample the tasty fruit once you’ve identified the plant.
Uses
The fruits are edible but their small size means that they don’t provide a meal.
Hybridism
This species can hybridise with other coprosmas, e.g., C. robusta. The result has leaves with an intermediate form, also with rough edges.
Where can you find Coprosma propinqua?
Look for this species in reserves in Wellington city and in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 10, November 2020
November in the hills with Chris Horne, Michele Dickson
Coprosma repens, taupata, mirror bush
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Introduction to Coprosma
The family Rubiaceae, commonly called the coffee family, is the fourth largest family of flowering plants in the world. In New Zealand it is represented by the genera Coprosma with about 50 native species, Galium with three native species and Nertera with seven native species. A conspicuous family characteristic is that the leaves are almost always opposite. The protective little flaps called stipules at the base of each leaf, which join in the middle of the stem between the opposite leaf stalks, are called interpetiolar stipules. These vary in appearance between the different species.
Coprosma is one of New Zealand’s larger native plant genera, the species ranging in size from small prostrate shrubs to twiggy shrubs and trees. Nearly all species are endemic, all have male and female flowers on separate plants and the flowers are wind-pollinated. The fruit is a fleshy drupe with two little stones, each containing one seed. We will describe some of the more common species in our region, starting with taupata, one of the larger-leaved species, which is unmistakable and can’t be confused with the others.
Origin of the botanical name
Coprosma is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, as one species in particular has an unpleasant smell; ‘repens’ comes from the Latin word ‘repere’ meaning ‘creeping’.
Distribution and habitat
Taupata is endemic and found naturally on Manawatāwhi/Three Kings Islands, Te Ika a Māui/North Island and on Te Waipounamu/South Island as far south as Greymouth in the west and Rarangi in the east. It is mainly a coastal plant and often forms the main understorey in coastal forest. It is also common on rocks, cliffs and boulder fields near the sea.
Growth habit
Taupata is very adaptable and resilient. It can be a small tree up to 8 m tall with a trunk c. 15 cm diameter in sheltered places, or a small shrub or low prostrate plant in exposed places, even growing in cracks with no apparent soil. The bark is dark to light brown. Older branches are brittle with smooth branchlets. The leaves are thick, almost fleshy, 6-8 × 4-5 cm, very glossy, shining, dark-green above, paler and dull below, broad-oblong to sub-rounded with smooth edges and flat to slightly recurved margins. Leaf-vein reticulations are evident above and especially below. Leaf stalks are 8-16 mm long.
Reproduction
Flowering is from June to February. The small creamy-white flowers are in dense compound clusters, up to 20 per cluster on male plants, and often only three per cluster on female plants. All have protruding parts, typical of wind-pollinated plants. Flowers of the female plants develop orange-red, red (rarely yellow) berries, obovoid and often slightly compressed, 8-12 × 8-10 mm. Birds eat the berries and disperse the seeds.
Uses
As Coprosma is related to the coffee genus, the seeds of taupata (and other species with large-enough berries) can be roasted and ground to make a substitute for coffee. The berries have occasionally been eaten by people. Plant fibres were frequently plaited by Māori. Taupata is sometimes used as a hedge plant. Māori tradition suggests that a clump of trees at Maketu, Bay of Plenty, descended from plant material brought on the early waka/canoes.
Where can you find taupata? -
Look for it in coastal habitats of South Wellington, East Harbour Regional Park and Makara.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 4, May 2021
May in the hills with Chris Horne, Michele Dickson
Coprosma rhamnoides, mingimingi, mikimiki, Twiggy coprosma
Coprosma rhamnoides, mingimingi, mikimiki, Twiggy coprosma
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Coprosma’ is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, because one Coprosma species in particular has an unpleasant smell; ‘rhamnoides’ comes from the Greek name of a thorny shrub, ‘Rhamnos’; ‘oides’ means ‘resembling’. C. rhamnoides is in the same genus as the species of Coprosma described in the last five issues of the Tramper. Note that the Te Reo names are also applied to some other species with small narrow leaves. The Coprosma genus is a member of the coffee family, the Rubiaceae.
Distribution and habitat
C. rhamnoides is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, Te Ika a Māui / North Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rakiura / Stewart Island. Look for it in lowland to lower montane forest and shrubland throughout its range. It grows in a wide range of sites, from shaded, sheltered sites to sites exposed to severe gales where it forms dense shrubby hummocks with wind-shorn shapes. Of the thirty or so small-leaved Coprosma species, this is the most common one in these plant communities.
Growth habit
Coprosma rhamnoides is a shrub 1–2 m tall with reddish-brown bark. The branches are stiff, rather slender and divaricate * / entangled, with finely hairy branchlets. The leaves, 7-12 x 4-14 mm, are often in bunches on short branchlets. The leaf stalks / petioles are 1-3 mm long and hairy. The tiny stipules between the leaves have conspicuous pointed tips. The leaves may range from somewhat leathery to thin. Their shape varies from very narrow to egg-shaped, attached at the broad end. You will find this variability on one plant helpful when trying to identify this species. The veins are obvious on the underside. * See the possible reasons for this divaricate form in the article on C. propinqua in the March 2021 Tramper.
Reproduction
The flowers develop on the end of short branchlets. The females are solitary; the males are solitary or there are two to four together. Female flowers and male flowers grow on separate plants. This phenomenon is common in Aotearoa’s plant genera. It is called ‘dioecy’, hence ‘dioecious’, from the Greek words meaning ‘two homes’. The fruit which appears in late summer on the female form of the plant is 3-4 mm in diameter. It ranges from dark crimson to almost black. Birds eat the fruit and disperse the seeds. Sample the fruit once you’ve identified the plant.
Uses
The berries are edible but their small size means that they don’t provide a meal. Research early last century found that the bark of Coprosma rhamnoides produced a durable orange dye for wool.
Where can you find Coprosma rhamnoides?
Look for this species in reserves in Wellington city and in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
[Ed: Publication of In the Hills in the April issue of the Tramper marked 10 years of regular monthly publication of the series of articles (originally titled In the forest) written and contributed by Chris Horne, Barbara Mitcalfe and Michele Dickson. See In the Hills for more information.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 11, December 2020
December in the hills with Chris Horne, Michele Dickson
Coprosma robusta, karamū,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Coprosma robusta and Coprosma lucida are somewhat similar in appearance, so it is no surprise that they are both called karamū. C. lucida will be described in the next In The Hills; ‘Coprosma’ is derived from the Greek words ‘kopros’ meaning ‘dung’ and ‘osme’ meaning ‘smell’, as one Coprosma species in particular has an unpleasant smell; ‘robusta’ comes from the Latin word ‘robustus’ meaning ‘strong, hardy’.
Distribution and habitat
C. robusta is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, Te Ika a Māui / North Island, on Te Waipounamu / South Island and on Rekohu / Chatham Island. Look for it on forest margins and in shrubland, especially on alluvial soils from the coast and lowlands to mid-elevations.
Growth habit
This species of karamū is a shrub or small tree to 6 m tall, with brown bark. The branches are spreading, stout and hairless. The leaves which are opposite, leathery and dull dark green above, paler below, 7-12 x 3-5 cm, taper to a point. The leaf midrib on the upper surface is sunken - test it with a fingernail. Run a finger along a leaf margin - fine hairs make it slightly rough. The rather stout leaf petioles (stalks) are 10–20 mm long. The stipule between the base of each pair of petioles has a black tip, a useful feature to note.
Reproduction
The densely clustered flowers are in small groups with female and male flowers appearing on separate plants. The berry is dark orange to yellow, 8-9 x 4-5 mm. Birds eat the berries on the female form of the plant and disperse the seeds.
Hybridism
This species of karamū sometimes hybridises with the small-leaved Coprosma propinqua. We will describe this common species in a future edition of the Tramper.
Uses
There are many references to customary and medicinal uses of this species of karamū. See Māori Healing and Herbal – New Zealand Ethnobotanical Sourcebook. Murdoch Riley / Brian Enting, pp 178-182, 1997. Viking Sevenseas Ltd. Sample the taste of a ripe berry.
Where can you find Coprosma robusta?
This species of karamū is abundant in reserves, waste places and untended hilly gardens in the Wellington region. It also occurs in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 10, November 2013
November in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Cordyline australis, Kōuka; Tī kōuka, Cabbage tree
Many early New Zealand paintings featured this iconic tree species, tī kōuka, a long-lived NZ endemic in the Asparagaceae family, all members of which are monocots (short for monocotyledons). This means that their first shoots appearing above the ground are single, as you may have noticed with other monocot plants such as grasses, lilies, orchids and palms.
 Cordyline australis, Kōuka; Tī kōuka, Cabbage tree Photo: teara.govt.nz |
Palms used to be known as 'cabbage trees' because their leaf tips could be eaten. During the 18th-_century voyages when Europeans discovered Aotearoa, it was noted that our Cordyline australis trees resembled palm trees, so explorers called them 'cabbage trees' and that name has stuck.
Tī kōuka can grow to 20 m tall. You see them in the North, South and Stewart islands, from sea level to 600 m altitude. They are often the only survivors in open spaces, because the surrounding bush has disappeared, or in swamps, which have not been drained. The trunks of old tī kōuka may be 2 m in diameter, and so durable that early settlers sometimes hollowed them out to use as chimneys. It is recorded that these often lasted longer than the huts themselves, and when the owners departed, they sprouted, starting a another long life.
Tī kōuka have many branches, and thick, rough, fissured bark. The tough, light-green leaves, crowded towards the end of the branches, are up to 1 m long and 6 cm wide. The large inflorescences, comprising hundreds of flowers, are 0.60-1.5 m by 30-60 cm and much-branched. The white, sweet-scented flowers appear in spring and produce whitish fruit c. 4 mm in diameter containing several black seeds. Their seedlings may appear in abundance in your garden because birds feed on the fruit.
Use
Māori used tī kōuka leaves for cordage and weaving. In Fishing methods and devices of the Māori, Elsdon Best records that in 1885, a giant seine net (kupenga) 2090 yards (over 1.9 km) long was made in many sections, by hundreds of Māori at Maketu. The upper and lower ropes were of tightly-twisted leaves of tī kōuka, even stronger and more durable than flax! The floats on the top of the seine were made of whau, a very light wood. Rounded boulders in baskets acted as weights on the bottom. It caught 37,000 fish, the first time it was used!
Māori cooked and ate the tips of tī kōuka branches and produced high-sugar, energy-rich food by baking the roots, and sometimes the whole trunks, in deep earth ovens (umu) for days on end. Trampers will be keen to know that dead tī kōuka leaves make ideal fire-starters, and that strips from the leaves make strong, temporary boot-laces.
Cabbage tree decline
In the early 1980s, wilting and dying cabbage trees became common in Northland in disturbed, exposed habitats along highways, on farms, and in urban areas. This phenomenon peaked in the mid-1990s as the disease, caused by a bacterium carried by sap-sucking insects, spread as far as the northern South Island. The trees take three to twelve months to die, although some recover.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 11, December 2013
December in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
 Cordyline banksii Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
In the November 2013 article we described the most commonly occurring NZ cordyline species, tī kōūka. Cordyline is a word of Greek origin meaning a club. It refers to the extraordinarily thick rhizome (swollen root) typical of this genus. In early times, these rhizomes were a staple food for many Māori tribes whose diet was generally deficient in carbohydrates. Unfortunately the high carbohydrate content in cordyline became known to some unscrupulous European whalers in Ōreti, among them a McShane, who cut down all the cabbage trees in the vicinity, boiled and distilled their rhizomes, and produced a wicked rum nicknamed “Chained Lightning”! As a result, local iwi had to move elsewhere to survive, because their previously never-failing stock of tī kōūka had been made into booze.
Cordyline banksii, Tī ngahere, Forest cabbage tree
We now describe Cordyline banksii, tī ngahere, forest cabbage tree. A shrub or small tree, it grows to 4 m tall, usually with several trunks branching from near ground level. The leaves resemble tī kōūka leaves, but are 1-2 m long and 4-8 cm wide, broad at the middle, and with a channelled leaf base. The long panicles (sprays) of very fragrant white flowers, similar to tī kōūka panicles, appear in November-January, producing fleshy, tasty white or blue berries 4-5 mm in diameter.
You’ll find this handsome plant on forest margins in the North and South islands, north and west of the main divide. There are several on the bush edge in the Wainuiomata Valley, just upstream from the Morton Dam and Water Treatment Plant.
Cordyline indivisa, Tōī, Mountain cabbage tree
 Cordyline indivisa inflorescence Photo: Rob Lucas |
Cordyline indivisa, tōī, mountain cabbage tree, is called “indivisa” because its massive trunk almost never branches, and can reach to 8-m tall. You can't miss it in montane bush – it is conspicuously different from anything else, with its crown of huge, shiny, dark green leaves shaped like broad swords, 1-2 m long and up to 15 cm wide.
Often partly obscured by the leaves, the spectacular inflorescence is not like that of any other cabbage tree species. Up to 1.5 m long by 30 cm wide, and pendulous, it comprises hundreds of fleshy racemes, densely crowded like ripening bananas overlapping each other, covered with thousands of tiny purple flower buds and scented yellow flowers. Male and female flowers appear in December, and the blue berries are c. 6 mm in diameter. Look for tōī in well-lit places in wet, montane forest, from Great Barrier Island and the Hunua and Coromandel ranges, to Fiordland. Locally there are fine examples beside the 4WD road leading up to Mt Climie, Upper Hutt.
There are two more cordyline species in our NZ flora, C. kaspar and C. pumilio, both of which are found in the Far North, but we shall not describe them here.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 9, October 2011
October in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Corynocarpus laevigatus, Karaka
Karaka is the only NZ species in the Corynocarpus genus, a plant group confined to the south- west Pacific.
Distribution and habitat
If you're tramping around Wellington's wild coast, you occasionally find groves of naturally occur- ring karaka in sheltered valley sites where they can reach to c.15 m. in height, with dense, spreading crowns and stout, usually single columnar trunks. As in earlier Māori times, and even now, the presence of karaka can be a useful indicator of a potential camp site in an otherwise inhospitable environment.
Growth habit
Its dark green leaves are thick and leathery, about 15 cm. long and 7 cm. wide, with down-curved edges, and a glossy sheen, called a “pellicle”, protecting the leaves from wind-driven salt crystals. The tiny greenish flowers are followed by handsome orange fruit, so heavy and prolific as to weigh down the branches. But beware – the kernel inside each fruit contains a deadly poison, karakin. Māori developed a lengthy, laborious soaking and steaming process to eliminate this poison, because once treated, the kernels were an important source of carbohydrate. If you're tempted to try this yourself, don't! However, you may be assured that as long as the fruit is ripe, it is safe to eat the sweet, tangy outside covering, raw.
Some botanists believe that the presence of karaka in the Wellington region is solely due to hu- mans bringing it down from the north, as with pōhutukawa. This is why some Wellingtonians pull up, or choose not to plant, this handsome tree in their gardens or restoration projects, because karaka have become “weedy” here, rapidly becoming dominant, with hundreds of seedlings per square metre, crowding out almost everything else, and significantly altering the species composi- tion of the surrounding ecosystem.
Kererū are the only indigenous bird which can swallow karaka fruit. Apparently the fruit passes through the bird so fast that the kernel is voided in minutes, minus its tasty outer covering – very clever! Kererū numbers are increasing so rapidly in Wellington that staff and volunteers at Otari, the Botanic Garden and Zealandia are having to organise working bees to reduce the number of karaka seedlings and saplings.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 3, April 2014
April in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
, ponga, silver fern
 Trunk, 'pegs' and fronds of Cyathea dealbata Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
 Young Cyathea dealbata fronds Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
You will see ponga, an endemic NZ tree fern species, in lowland to lower montane forest and shrub land, from sea level to 600 m, throughout the North and South islands, and on Chatham Island / Rekohu. As the most drought-tolerant of the Cyathea genus, it favours well-drained sites, so it is not common in the wetter parts of the South Island’s West Coast. The trunk can be up to 10 m tall and about 45 cm diameter at its base. The fronds, dark green above, extend roughly horizontally and are up to 4 m long and 1 m wide. As old fronds die and fall off, they leave behind persistent, prominent, light brown peg-like, stem-bases a little thicker than your thumb. Remember the mnemonic in the March 2014 article: ‘P’ for pegs, ‘P’ for ponga.
Cyathea means ‘cup-like’, referring to the form of the indusium which protects the unripe reproductive parts, called spores, on the underside of the frond. Dealbata means ‘whitish’, referring to the underside of the adult fronds, the basis of one of New Zealand’s best known emblems. Young ponga fronds lack the white underside.
The name ‘ponga’ is often mispronounced as ‘punga’, and that word is applied indiscriminately and incorrectly to all of our seven species of tree fern. Please avoid it because it is both wrong and confusing.
Look for the spiral coils of young fronds – koru – covered with brown hairs and scales, and also the white stalks of the mature fronds. Growing on the trunk, among the frond stumps, you will often see seedlings of trees such as kāmahi and five-finger and many species of ferns which have germinated on the trunks.
Use
Māori used to spread the fronds on sleeping places in their whare. They used the poisonous, fibrous, woody part of the trunk as tips for some of their weapons. Ponga pith had many rongoa uses - it was used to make poultices, and taken internally, the gum was used to expel worms. Early European settlers in Southland built huts called ‘bungi huts’ with ponga walls. In some native forests, tree fern trunks are used to form “corduroy tracks”.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 6, July 2011
July in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Cyathea medullaris, Mamaku, Black Tree Fern
You can easily identify our handsome mamaku, (black tree fern), by the thick black stalks of its fronds, and by the characteristic way the fronds arch upwards from the top of the trunk.
Mamaku is native to New Zealand and the Pacific islands from Fiji to Pitcairn. Common in low- land forest in the North Island, and in mostly coastal parts of the South Island, it is the most nu- merous tree fern in gullies in the Wellington region. On mamaku trunks, you may have noticed the distinctive hexagonal scars left by the fallen fronds. The largest of our eight species of tree fern, mamaku often emerges above the canopy, reaching to 20 m tall, with fronds to 5 m long.
Medullaris refers to the medulla, the spongy white pith in the centre of young mamaku fronds. In 1871, a colonist, O’Carroll, reported, “The poultices the native doctor uses are the convoluted tops of the mamaku, fern tree, boiled ... a strong drawing and very quick poultice.” Even today, this bush remedy is still used in some parts of New Zealand.
Possums browse all the green parts of mamaku fronds, leaving only the midribs and side ribs - the result looks like a fish skeleton! Mamaku scales are like flattened brown hairs which, seen under a lens, are so sharply serrated, it's no wonder we itch when they get into our clothing! The right place for a handful of these scales is in your fire-lighting kit, because they make effective tinder.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 2, March 2014
March in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Cyathea medullaris, mamaku, black tree fern
 Cyathea-medullaris koru Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
 Cyathea-medullaris bases of stipes, and scars on trunk Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Early European settlers arriving in Aotearoa were astonished to see ferns-that-are-trees, a large plant form which they had never experienced. Raising elegant umbrellas on high, mamaku is our tallest, most massive, and probably our most distinctive tree fern species, with trunks c. 30 cm diameter reaching up to at least 20 m in deep, moist gullies. Their gracefully arching fronds can reach 6 m in length, and when they die and drop off, they leave distinctive, fibrous, hexagonal scars on the black trunk. These scars and the very thick, black stems of the fronds (up to 90 mm thick at the base and covered in scales with tiny spines) are features which distinguish mamaku from our other indigenous tree fern species, e.g. ponga (silver fern). When dried, these scales were valued as highly flammable tinder, carried as such by Māori when travelling.
We pause here to explain that, with experience, trampers can identify a mamaku from e.g., a ponga, simply by looking at the trunk. So when looking for bits of silver fern fronds to lay upside down as route markers, you can identify a ponga because instead of having hexagonal scars on its trunk like mamaku, ponga's dead fronds leave behind crowded, pale brown stem-bases c. 30 mm thick . We call them 'pegs' because they stick out c. 15 cm. all round the upper area of the trunk The handy mnemonic for this is 'P' for pegs, 'P' for ponga. We shall describe ponga in the April 2014 article.
Young mamaku fronds arise radially from the top of the trunk like spokes of a massive umbrella. They are called koru, or fiddleheads, frequently pictured in art works, their slow uncurling over several days a delight to behold.
Use
Trampers might note that the external and internal medicinal (rongoā) uses of the pith / pitau are many. For example, raw or heated, when scraped, the pure white pith makes an excellent poultice, holding the heat particularly well and also having curative juices. 'Bush' remedies such as this are still being used with confidence in many areas today. Some bush workers even store pitau in their home freezer in case they need first aid in a hurry for a boil or a septic wound.
Mamaku is found in the Pacific Islands, from Fiji to Pitcairn. It is common in the North Island's lowland forests, mostly coastal in the South Island, but absent from the drier parts of Canterbury and Otago. It also occurs on Chatham Island / Rēkohu and Stewart Island / Rakiura. Wellington's most common tree fern species, it is often emergent above the canopy of regenerating forest. It prefers moist sites but is frost tender. You may have seen young mamaku fronds looking as bare as fish skeletons. This is because they are palatable to possums, who strip every shred of foliage off them.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 6, July 2014
July in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Cyathea smithii, kātote, soft tree fern
 Cyathea smithii with its skirt of stalks Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
If you're ever on the Auckland Islands, take your balaclava off and salute the world's southernmost tree fern species. Now put out your hand and feel the surprising softness of the fronds, hence its common name, soft tree fern. OK, you don't need to go to the Auckland Islands to see kātote, a NZ endemic tree fern. Favouring cold, moist sites, it's a common sub-canopy tree fern of lowland to montane forests in the South Island, montane forests in the North Island, and is also common on Stewart and Chatham islands. Wellington trampers will recognise kātote as the most common tree fern species appearing in the forest as altitude increases.
Kātote trunks can reach to c. 8 m, and its c. 2.5 m fronds are held out rather stiffly, sometimes almost horizontally. So you will realise almost immediately how they differ from the much longer, curved fronds of some other cyathea species such as mamaku, described in our tree fern series in the March issue of The Tramper. Another distinguishing feature of kātote is that only the slender midribs of its dead fronds persist as a rattly skirt, like a piupiu* hanging down all round, from the top of the trunk. Note that the dead foliage itself does not persist, just the skinny midribs of the fronds. (Compare this with last month's whekī ponga's voluminous skirt of whole dead fronds hanging down).
Opinions differ on the palatability of the young frond bases. They were cooked and eaten by Māori, but Thomas Brunner, 1821-1874, described them as unpalatable, in fact exceedingly indigestible. Perhaps he tried them raw, owing to the extraordinary privations he experienced on his many, intrepid traverses. H. Beattie in 1920 described the kātote frond bases as having a sweet taste, like something that, “might make good jam”.
Dense golden-brown scales covering the frond bases form a silky-soft, nest-like mass in the centre of the crown, where the fronds originate. Carefully removed, so as not to damage the young fronds, these scales would probably make good tinder, like mamaku scales.
Cyathea smithii is named in honour of John Smith, 1798 – 1888, who started as the 'stove boy' heating the glass houses at the Botanic Gardens at Kew, and eventually became Kew curator. When he started there, Kew had only 40 fern species, but when he left after 42 years of service, he had assembled over 1,000, such was his lifelong interest in, expert knowledge of, and concern for ferns.
Use
We have not found any references to kātote having rongoā (medicinal) properties. If you know of any, please let us know. Here's a useful, sibilant mnemonic for remembering that Cyathea smithii, soft tree fern, has a skirt of stalks.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 2, March 2015
March in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, kahikatea, white pine
At least 60 m - 65 m in height, kahikatea is believed to be our tallest tree species. With a lifetime estimated to be 600 – 1000 years, it is also one of our longest-lived. A NZ endemic, kahikatea is found throughout the country, including Rakiura/Stewart Island. It favours moist sites up to 600 m elevation, including swamps, fertile flood plains and river terraces. Locally you can see fine examples in the water catchment area in Wainuiomatā Valley.
During their long lifetime, kahikatea adopt a series of distinctive, characteristic shapes. Beginning in Stage 1, as straggly seedlings, these spindly young trees take many decades to reach Stage 2, which is an easily-recognisable conical form, tapering to a point at the top, like a Xmas tree. Hundreds of years later, these will have reached Stage 3, i.e., maturity, having gained much height and become columnar, with a tall, very slender crown. Finally, in Stage 4, the crown of the aging tree broadens dramatically and opens out into a rounded shape.
Kahikatea trunks can exceed 2.5 m in diameter. Older trunks are usually vertically fluted, and buttressed at the base. The grey bark often peels off in oval flakes, giving the trunk a 'hammer-marked' appearance. The young leaves are soft to touch and measure c. 7 mm x 2 mm. The scale-like, mature leaves are c. 2 mm x 1 mm.
 A luscious kahikatea receptacle, topped by a ripening seed. Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Like all our NZ conifers (see February Tramper), kahikatea are usually dioecious. The male trees produce pollen 'cones', and the female trees produce seed 'cones'. Both types of cones are only c. 1 cm long and are found at the end of slender branchlets. The male cones are covered in scales which tightly overlap each other until, at pollination time, they are forced apart by the developing pollen underneath them, and millions of minute pollen grains escape into the air, to be carried away by the wind, to try their luck!
Meanwhile in another part of the forest, so to speak, millions of tiny female cones are developing and ripening. Each of them perches on the swollen, juicy tip of its twig, which is called a receptacle - see image. Each cone has a minute aperture, and guess what? At least one wind-driven pollen grain will enter the aperture and begin the process of fertilisation of the ovule, which usually takes several months.
The receptacles are often mistaken for fruit, because as they mature they turn red, attracting kererū, tūī and kākā, which gobble them up together with the ripened, black seeds. Entire female kahikatea trees can appear orange-red in autumn when this phenomenon advertises that the time has come for birds to plunder the bounty and thus propagate the species, a mutually-useful arrangement.
Use
The juicy receptacles were also an important food for Māori - sweet, with a slightly piney aftertaste. One feast was recorded as serving 60 baskets of it. They also made a tonic by steeping chips of the wood in boiling water, then drinking the liquid. Kahikatea wood was their favourite for making bird spears, and the soot derived from burning the heartwood was used as a tattooing pigment.
From 1885 to the 1940s, the main use of the wood was in making parchment-lined butter boxes to hold 56-pound slabs for export. Kahikatea wood was ideal for this use because it is odourless, clean-looking and lightweight. This usage, together with concrete boxing for the Clyde Dam, led to the destruction of extensive stands of kahikatea. Because a towering kahikatea is a whole ecological community supporting 'nests' of epiphytic fern, orchid, shrub, liane, lichen, moss and sedge species, not to mention hundreds of vertebrate and invertebrate animal species, one can easily imagine the huge amount of indigenous biodiversity that was lost with the trees.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 3, April 2015
April in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Dacrydium cupressinum, rimu
 Rimu’s long, pendulous branchlets Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Rimu's ancestry dates from c. 37 million years ago. It is an endemic NZ conifer member of the podocarp family, found in the North, South and Stewart islands, from sea level up to c. 700 m, with a lifespan of c. 700 to c. 1000 years. It has a conical form as a young adult and can grow to more than 60 m high, with a trunk of up to c. 2 m diameter. Its brown bark falls off in slabs, often c. 30 x 50 cm, revealing an attractive pattern underneath, like ripple marks on sand.
Juvenile rimu leaves are scale-like, 4-7 x 0.5–1 mm, strongly keeled on the underside and angled away from the stem. Adult leaves are similar, but only 2–3 mm. long. Note that unlike kahikatea leaves, they are prickly, and pendulous on long, flexible branchlets. This is a key difference between rimu and kahikatea. (See image). Pollination and fertilisation in rimu are similar to kahikatea in all respects, including time taken to mature. (Please refer to the March article).
Use
Māori found a multitude of uses for rimu. The heartwood was used for making spears up to 6 m long, and bundles of the highly resinous scraps were bound together and lit for torches. They used the timber for making handles for a range of tools such as toki / adzes. They even used the soot from the burnt heartwood, as pigment for moko / tattoo. Medicinal uses / rongoā, included drinking the liquid in which pieces of rimu bark had been boiled, a proven cure for dysentery. The gum was used to staunch bleeding.
In 1777 Captain Cook recorded boiling up a brew of rimu and mānuka foliage with molasses, and fermenting it with yeast, as an experimental remedy for scurvy. Not surprisingly this 'medicine' proved very popular with his crew.
In the March article, you will have read about the tiny, juicy kahikatea female cones collected en masse in season by Māori, for sweet food. Female rimu cones were similarly enjoyed in season. They are also an essential food for the endangered kākāpō, to the extent that rimu and kākāpō appear to be interdependent. Rimu cones, abundant in a mast year, are rich in protein, essential fatty acids, carbohydrates, sugar, and particularly calcium, essential for strong egg shells, and for developing strong bones in the chicks. Kākāpō, being vegetarian, have no other source of calcium. When there is a poor crop of rimu cones, DOC supplies special supplementary food, replicating the nutritional values of the cones.
Continuing the theme of rimu usage, hundreds of thousands of NZ homes were built with rimu's superior quality timber - hard, strong and durable. For many decades it has been the main timber for house frames, weatherboards, doors, door frames, panelling, flooring, furniture, and plywood veneers. The beautifully figured heartwood is sought after for decorative uses, as in Wellington's Beehive. Now in short supply, rimu timber is often rescued from former usage and recycled
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 6, July 2018
July in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Dianella nigra, tūrutu, NZ blueberry, ink berry
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
The genus Dianella shares features found in numerous other genera of native plants, including the five species of cabbage tree (Cordyline Australis and Cordyline banksii and Cordyline indivisa), the two flaxes (Phormium tenax and Phormium cookianum), the seventeen species of astelia, and rengarenga lily. Dianella, like all these species, and many other native species, is a monocotyledon meaning that each seed produces one seed-leaf/cotyledon, not two. Formerly classified within the lily family Liliaceae, taxonomists have since placed it in the family Xanthorroeaceae. Dianella nigra is endemic and is a plant you often see in the hills. Note: The Dianella genus is widespread in the Southern Hemisphere. There are about three non-native species of Dianella in cultivation.
Origin of the names
Dianella means ‘little Diana’, from the Latin ‘Diana’, the Roman goddess of the woods, hunting and the moon; nigra means black. ‘Blueberry’ indicates the colour of the fruit; ‘ink-berry’ refers to the ink-like juice produced when a fruit is squeezed.
Distribution and habitat
Tūrutu is present on Manawatawhi/Three Kings Islands, Te Ika a Māui/North Island, and Te Waipounamu/South Island. Look for it in light or semi-shaded forest, in fern lands, on banks, track edges, forest floor, and sometimes swampy ground, at elevations up to 1100 m.
Growth habit
Tūrutu is an evergreen perennial herb. The plants resemble miniature flax plants, growing to 0.8 m high and spreading to 1 m. The leaf bases fold over each other in two rows forming fans, several together making a small clump. The short rhizome/root can sprout young plants 10 cm or more from the parent. The leaves are 250-800 mm long x 12-18 mm wide, mostly light green, and have a reddish sheath at the base. The leaves are tough but not rigid, glossy above and dull beneath, with fine veins. The folded part of the leaf forms a keel. Run your index finger along the edges of an adult leaf, and along the mid-rib on the underside - they may feel slightly rough.
Reproduction
Tūrutu flowers, with female and male parts, appear from November to December. They grow on long, much branched, narrow spidery stalks. The fruits appear from December to May. The flowers are greenish white, 9-11 mm in diameter, opening early each day, with the innermost petal-like segments becoming recurved. The fruits/berries are 8-20 mm x 7-10 mm, globose to oblong, ranging from grey-white and dull to bright violet-blue and glossy. If squeezed, an ink-like juice appears. Each fruit contains about six small, shiny black seeds. The fruits are eaten by native birds.
Uses
Tūrutu leaves were used as pepe/bird calls by Māori fowlers. They folded a leaf into a tube, then blew through the leaf to produce a loud noise to attract birds. Blueberry, a popular garden bedding plant, is sold by some plant nurseries. Caution: The berries are considered to be poisonous.
Where to find tūrutu
Look for it in Otari-Wilton’s Bush, the Remutaka and Tararua ranges and the Eastbourne and Hutt hills, particularly in places with light overhead cover. It is present, but not common, in the Aorangi Range.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 5, June 2014
June in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Dicksonia fibrosa, whekī-ponga
 Dicksonia fibrosa with voluminous skirt Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
You can’t miss this handsome, endemic, tree fern with its massive, reddish-brown trunk up to 60 cm in diameter covered by thickly matted fibres. It grows to 6 m tall with a crown of living fronds arising at a steep angle. Up to 3 m long, they are dark-green above, paler below, harsh when you clutch one and densely hairy at the base. Below the crown hangs a tightly-belted, strikingly voluminous skirt of complete, grey-brown, dead fronds, which accumulate there, lasting for years, obscuring the upper part of the trunk.
Whekī-ponga is a sub-canopy species that prefers fertile, silty, soils near rivers in lowland to montane forest, or semi-open country in the North Island from Auckland southwards. It is mostly coastal and lowland in the South, Stewart and Chatham islands. Uncommon in Wellington city, there are examples in Otari-Wilton’s Bush, Karori Sanctuary, and Burrows Avenue Reserve, Karori. You will also see several in Riverstone Terraces Reserve, between Moonshine Road and the Whakatikei River, on the track above the true right bank of the Hutt River.
You may remember reading in the May Tramper article, about whekī-ponga's close relative, Dicksonia squarrosa / whekī. The presence of hairs on the stalks distinguishes the Dicksonia genus from the only other NZ tree-fern genus, Cyathea, which has hairs and scales – see the articles in the March and April issues of The Tramper.
The genus Dicksonia, is named after an 18th - century English botanist, James Dickson. The species name, fibrosa, refers to the thickly matted fibres covering the trunk.
Use
We have not found any rongoā (medicinal) uses of whekī-ponga. If you know of any, please let us know.
Because the tough fibres effectively deterred rats, Māori split the whekī-ponga trunks to form slabs for lining buildings, e.g., pātaka / food stores, or forming food-storage platforms placed on top of posts.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, # 4, May 2014, page 9
May in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Dicksonia squarrosa, whekī, rough tree fern
We hope you're enjoying the challenge of identifying in the bush the two tree-fern species which we described for you in the last two issues of the Tramper. Let's recap. - you've already learnt that:
- mamaku fronds have thick black stems which, when dead, drop cleanly off the trunk, leaving behind only octagonal scars;
- ponga fronds when dead, break off the trunk but leave behind thumb-thick, pale fawn, 15-cm-long pegs 'to hang your hat on'.
Now for your third tree-fern, Dicksonia squarrosa, whekī, rough tree fern. The fronds, when dead, break off, but leave behind on the trunk, 20-cm-long, skinny, black, stem bases, far too skinny to hang anything on.
Very rough to the touch, whekī fronds are dark green with paler green undersides, c. 3 m long , extending stiffly out from the trunk, not curving like mamaku fronds do. In the bush, you will have noticed the dead fronds, because even from a distance, they are a highly visible, easily identifiable, gingery-orange-colour, hanging down the trunk or lying on the ground, where they persist for a long time before decaying.
The Dicksonia genus may have evolved before the Cenozoic Era, which began about 65 million years ago. This would make it one of the most ancient fern genera still surviving today. Endemic to NZ, Dicksonia squarrosa can grow to c. 7 m tall, preferring moist sites in coastal or montane forest. It is common on the Three Kings, North, South, Stewart and Chatham islands, often forming groves, because it has the ability to reproduce by means of underground stolons which form new plantlets from buds at their tips. Also, if a whekī crown is damaged or killed by frost, it can sprout a new crown from the hairy, velvety buds on its trunk. This is why you will sometimes see whekī with 'two-storied' crowns. This unusual budding feature is of considerable use to landscape gardeners who know that just one, sawn-off whekī trunk can produce a whole fernery of whekī.
You'll be pleased to learn that there are only two genera of tree-ferns in the NZ flora: Cyathea and Dicksonia:
- Cyathea species have hairs and scales.
- Dicksonia species have only hairs.
Thus you can distinguish the genus of a tree-fern in the bush by checking whether the one you're looking at has fine hairs on its frond stems, (like cat or dog hairs), in which case it is a Dicksonia. If it has hairs and scales, (which are much broader than hairs, and often with tiny spikes), it is a Cyathea.
Use
We have not found any references to rongoā (medicinal properties) in whekī. If you happen to know of any, we would be pleased to hear from you.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 10, November 2022
November in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Discaria toumatou, Tūmatakuru, Matagouri; Wild Irishman
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Discaria’ is derived from the Latin and Greek words ‘discus’ and ‘diskos’, meaning a ‘ring’, referring to the annular disc in the flower; toumatou is how speakers of English heard a South Island pronunciation of the Māori name tūmatakoura, and the word matagouri is another corruption of the shrub’s Māori name. Tūmatakuru is a member of the Rhamnaceae family.
Distribution and habitat
Matagouri is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island (uncommon now), and abundantly on Te Waipounamu / South Island, mainly east of the main divide, and on Wharekauri / Rekohu /Chatham Islands. It is found from north Waikato southwards on dunes, lowland and montane grassy flats, gullies and in scrub, often dominant and forming thickets.
Growth habit
Matagouri is a much-branched, often deciduous, grey, spiny shrub or tree up to 5 m tall, with rough grey bark. Stems and branches are stiff, branchlets are green, rounded and flexible, and all are divaricate / intertangled. Leaves are 10–20 mm long, oval-shaped, dark, glossy and leathery. They are opposite, sometimes in a little bundle and found at the base of rigid, opposite, sharp spines up to 5 cm long.
Reproduction
The flowers too are either solitary or in little bundles at the base of spines, alongside the leaves. They are white with yellow centres, 3-5 mm in diameter. The fruit is a dry capsule, globose with 3-lobes, about 5 mm long. The capsule lobes split open, each containing one seed. Seeds are dispersed by ballistic projection and water. Flowering is from October to January and fruiting from December to March.
Uses
The hard, woody spines were used by Māori for tattooing. Matagouri is sometimes used as a hedge plant. It also fixes atmospheric nitrogen, in the same manner as many plants of the pea family.
Where can you find matagouri?
Southern Wairarapa, Wellington coastline (uncommon), Rangitatau Reserve overlooking Strathmore (a few rather concealed plants) and on Te Waipounamu / South Island, mainly east of the main divide.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 3, April 2022
April in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Dracophyllum filifolium, Inanga, turpentine shrub
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Dracophyllum’ is derived from the Greek words 'draco' for dragon and 'phyllum' for leaf; filifolium is derived from the Latin words 'filum' for thread and 'folium' for leaf. Inanga is a member of the Ericaceae family.
Distribution and habitat
Inanga is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows in lowland to montane forest, subalpine shrubland, herb fields and rocky places up to 1,500 m, from Mount Maungapohatu in Te Urewera southwards to Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rakiura / Stewart Island.
Growth habit
Inanga is a shrub or small tree up to 4 m tall with many long, slender, flexible branches. The fissured bark is dark brown to almost black. The grass-like, erect leaves are 4-20 cm long x 0.7-1.5 mm wide. The leaf margins curve upwards and have fine teeth. There are sheaths at the base of the leaves.
Reproduction
The white flowers develop in spikes, ca. 5 mm in diameter, lack stalks and are 20-30 mm long. They develop in clusters of five to nine flowers on side branches. Inanga flowers from late spring to early winter, with fruit appearing throughout the year. The fruits are smooth capsules 2–3 mm long, also lack stalks and shed seeds when the dry walls split open. The seeds are numerous, orange to orange-brown, elongate and small, about 1 mm long.
Uses
The name 'turpentine shrub' arises from its use for starting a campfire. If you know of any other uses, please tell us.
Where can you find inanga / turpentine shrub?
Te Kopahou Reserve - Wellington, East Harbour Regional Park and in the Remutaka, Tararua and Aorangi ranges
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 6, July 2013
July in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Dysoxylum spectabile, Kohekohe
Some club members have been treated to spectacular displays of kohekohe trees in flower this winter. Sheena Hudson reported festoons of flowers in Rangituhi/Colonial Knob Scenic Reserve, where tūī and waxeyes were vying for the nectar. Lois Hope described as “wonderful” the display of flowers in Birdwood Street Reserve, Karori.
 Dysoxylum spectabile, Kohekohe Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
 Dysoxylum spectabile, Kohekohe Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Dysoxylum means “bad wood”, referring to the bad odour and taste of the bark of some species of this genus; spectabile means “spectacular, eye-catching” – appropriate for a tree that at the peak of flowering can be a simply stunning sight.
The genus Dysoxylum is in the Meliaceae family, which comprises mostly tropical trees and shrubs in about 80 genera and 800 species, including mahogany. Kohekohe, a NZ endemic species, occurs in coastal to lowland forest in the North Island, and the northeastern tip of the South Island. It can grow to c.15 m tall, with a columnar trunk up to c. 1 m diameter, with pale-grey bark, and stout branches.
The leaves are compound, comprising a terminal leaflet, and 3 - 4 pairs of glossy, leathery, mostly opposite, leaflets. These range from 5 – 20 cm long, and 2 – 8 cm wide, the result often being an impressively large leaf. The flowers are up to 3 cm diameter, with waxy, greenish-white petals, and a subtle, spicy perfume. The flowering stems, up to 40 cm long, are usually cauliferous, i.e. growing straight out of the trunk, sometimes right down at ground level. The capsules containing the seeds are about 25 mm diameter, looking rather like bunches of green grapes. Look out for them from now until August – they will persist for about fifteen months, splitting open to reveal two seeds in each cell, with a fleshy, scarlet cover. Kohekohe may not flower each winter, because they are 'mast' flowerers, i.e. after a particularly abundant flowering, they may not flower heavily for a year or more.
Kohekohe forest used to form extensive tracts in warm, damp sites, most of which have been cleared for housing and farming. The remnants have been severely damaged by possums, but in reserves where Greater Wellington Regional Council, city and district councils, have been poisoning possums, these forests have been restored, e.g. Hemi Matenga Reserve in Waikanae, Raumati Escarpment Reserve, Whareroa Farm Park, Khandallah Park, Huntleigh Park, Otari-Wilton’s Bush, and Wellington Botanic Garden contain areas of kohekohe forest.
Use
Among its rongoa uses, some Māori boil kohekohe bark to make a tonic, and the boiled leaves are used make a poultice for boils, wounds, skin disorders and inflammation. Early Pākeha settlers in Northland made culinary use of the leaves by using them as a substitute for yeast, instead of hops, when making bread
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 1, February 2013
February in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Elaeocarpus dentatus, hīnau
Elaeocarpus means seeds like olives and dentatus means toothed, referring to the flower petals of this endemic NZ tree. A lowland forest species, hīnau grows throughout the North Island. In the South Island, it reaches to Christchurch in the east and south Westland in the west. Its rounded crown is often seen in the canopy of tall broadleaf forest. Sometimes emergent, hīnau can grow to 20 m high, with a diameter of 1 m. The contribution made by such a long-lived tree, to the ecosystem of which it is a significant part, must be immense. A whole community of insects, birds and epiphytic plants, finds homes in its crown. In season, birds flock to eat juicy hīnau fruit, and it is likely that bees also visit its scented flowers.
 Elaeocarpus dentatus Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Hīnau's adult leaves are usually alternate and are up to 12 cm x 3 cm. Occasionally finely serrated, they are broader towards the pointed tip, and their edges typically curl under. They tend to be arranged in erect clusters at the end of the twigs, making hīnau identification relatively simple, even from a distance. They have a firm texture and are dark green. (Compare the juvenile hīnau leaves, described below). If you turn over an adult hīnau leaf, you may see a few tiny triangular 'pocket' domatia on the underside, where the veins meet the midrib. The function of domatia is not known for sure, but they are usually inhabited by minute insects, so perhaps they have a symbiotic relationship.
Juvenile hīnau leaves are quite different. A tiny hīnau seedling (e.g. less than 15 cm high), has leaves shaped like the adult's, but they're flimsy, more serrated, and sometimes have brownish freckle-like splodges. By the time the seedling has grown to c. 1m high, it has developed long, narrow, parallel-sided leaves (up to 20 cm x 3 cm) that poke straight out from the main stem at right angles. They are often mistaken for juvenile rewarewa, but rewarewa leaves are paler green with much coarser serrations.
Hīnau flowers are bisexual, white, with ragged-edged petals, and lightly sweet-scented. They hang like lily-of-the-valley flowers, in racemes along the stem.
Hīnau fruit are c. 2 cm x 1cm, fleshy, pendulous, purple-brown, with kernels like olives. Māori used to stone-grind the kernels finely, producing a granular meal known to be highly nutritious. They then bound the mixture with water and cooked it in flat cakes, either in an umu or on hot stones. The result of this laborious process was considered a great delicacy, reserved for invalids or special guests.
Hīnau bark is greyish, with shallow vertical furrows. Occasionally hīnau trunks become hollow, yet characteristically, the trees continue to grow and thrive, producing enough sound, food-and water-conducting tissue around the hollow core to last for scores of years. Next time you're in Wellington Botanic Garden you may note two hollow hīnau still flowering and fruiting. One of them is beside the track, near the top of Hīnau Path, and the other is on the true right of Stable Gully.
Use
The high tannin content of the bark was well known and used by Māori to dye black the scraped portions of flax garments, producing contrasting patterns. A solution of hīnau bark, which is highly astringent, was also used externally to treat some skin complaints. This was its main rongoa use.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 7, August 2020
August in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Elaeocarpus hookerianus, pōkaka,
Photo: Rob Lucas
Photo: Rob Lucas
Origin of the botanical name
Elaeocarpus comes from the Greek words for ‘olive-tree’ and ‘fruit’; hookerianus comes from Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865), Director, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, or his son, Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817-1911), naturalist on the “Erebus” during the British Antarctic Expedition and author of Flora Novaezelandiae. The only other member of the Elaeocarpus genus in New Zealand is hīnau, E. dentatus - see The Tramper February 2013.
Distribution and habitat
Pōkaka is endemic to New Zealand. Look for it in lowland to montane forests on Te Ika a Maui/North Island from Kaitaia south, on Te Waipounamu/South Island and on Rakiura/Stewart Island.
Growth form
Pōkaka is a canopy tree up to about 12 m tall. The trunk is up to 1 m diameter with pale, rough bark with narrow longitudinal fissures. The leaves are 3-11 cm long x 1-3 cm wide. They are alternate, leathery, lance-shaped with blunt or sharply pointed ends. Pōkaka is sometimes host to pirinoa / small-flowered mistletoe / Ileostylus micrantus. Young plants have a remarkable bushy form with flexible entangled branchlets forming a dense mass. This habit is called “divaricating”. The tiny, long-persisting juvenile leaves have many forms, from egg-shaped up to 12 mm long with the narrow end at the base, to very narrow with parallel edges, up to 5 cm long x 6 mm wide. They range in colour from green to brown to white. On adult trees look for ‘reversion’ shoots bearing leaves with the linear juvenile form. Divarication is common in New Zealand plants – about 60 species of trees and shrubs display this growth form. Few species overseas are divaricate.
Reproduction
Pōkaka flowers from October to January. The drooping, white flowers, 4-6 mm diameter, have deep longitudinal incisions. The oval, purple-black stone fruit (a drupe), about 8 mm long, appear from November to March. Distribution of seeds is by birds.
Uses
Māori used pōkaka to produce a mordant to make a black dye.
Where can you find pōkaka?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, East Harbour Regional Park, Porirua Scenic Reserve and the Tararua, Remutaka Aorangi and Akatarawa ranges. If you see a tree with leaves like a blend of pōkaka and hīnau, you may have found a hybrid.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 6, July 2022
July in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Entelea arborescens, Whau, New Zealand cork tree, New Zealand balsa wood
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
'Entelea' is derived from the Greek word ‘enteles’ meaning ‘perfect’, referring to the stamens being all fertile; ‘arborescens’ means becoming tree-like. It is a member of the Malvaceae or mallow family.
Distribution and habitat
Whau is endemic to Aotearoa. It is found on Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Islands, Te Ika a Māui / North Island and on Te Waipounamu / South Island. It is more common in the north as far south as Kawhia and Mahia Peninsula, being found in only more localised sites in the southern North Island and Golden Bay area of the South Island. However, it has become established and naturalised in many places, being both deliberately planted and easily grown from seeds, whilst animal browsing has contributed to a decline in other places. It grows naturally in coastal to lowland forest, often in open sites.
Growth habit
Whau is a shrub or small tree up to 15 m tall with a trunk up to 0.25 m diameter and numerous spreading branches. Trees are fast-growing and short-lived. The bark is grey and wood-weight lighter than cork. The branchlets, leaves and stalks of leaves and flowers are densely clad in soft hairs. The heart-shaped, sometimes mildly lobed, membranous leaves are alternate, bright green, almost glossy and have a distinct palmate venation. Their stalks / petioles are stout, up to 300 mm long. The leaf blade is 50 – 300 mm x 50 – 250 mm with a doubly crenate-serrate edge.
Reproduction
Whau flowers from September to November and fruits from December to March. Bunches of flowers arise from stalks up to 300 mm long. Each flower has five crumpled, white petals, with numerous, yellow anthers in the middle. The fruits are dry, round, spiny, dark-brown capsules 20 – 30 mm diameter. They are long-lasting, sometimes being blown by wind or washed up by water, eventually splitting open to release numerous brown seeds 1.9 – 2.9 mm long. These can remain viable for many years.
Uses
The buoyant wood was used by Māori as net floats, buoys, fishing rafts and boat fenders. Long fibres from the trunk were used for fishing lines. Pieces of wood were used for stick games, darts or poi. The bark and wood have been used for dyes.
Where can you find whau?
Look for whau along the northern part of the Paekākāriki Escarpment Track, Ngā Manu Nature Reserve, other patches of bush on the Kāpiti Coast and on the Aorangi Range.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 10, November 2018
November in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Freycinetia banksii, kiekie, kiekie
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
As David Ogilvie stated “we all love kiekie” for helping us scramble up banks, but he laments the scarcity of the fruits. (See article in The Tramper, December 2012.) Kiekie belongs to the screw-pine family, Pandanaceae, a largely tropical family represented in the Pacific Islands by species of pandanus with conspicuous large aerial roots supporting the stem.
Origin of the botanical name
Freycinetia was named by botanist Charles Gaudichaud-Beaupré (1789-1854) after Admiral Henri Louis Claude de Saulces de Freycinet (1779-1842), a 19th-century French navigator and explorer; banksii was named after Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), an English naturalist and botanist on Cook’s first voyage to NZ 1769-1770.
Distribution and habitat
Kiekie is endemic to Aotearoa/NZ. It grows on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, and on Te Waipounamu/South Island, extending to about the Clarence River in the east and Fiordland in the west. Look for it in wet sites in forest and beside streams.
Growth habit
Kiekie is a woody root-climber vine with densely branched stems ending in spiral tufts of descending narrow, sword-shaped, leathery leaves, a little reminiscent of the forest cabbage tree (The Tramper, December 2013). Assisted by its aerial roots, it climbs using trees, banks and other kiekie stems as support, or forms a dense tangle on the ground. It can climb to the crowns of trees 30 m or more tall. The stems are up to 4 cm diameter, marked with scars of old leaves. The dark green leaves, often blotched with yellow, are up to 150 cm long x 2.5 cm wide, with two prominent ribs running either side of the keeled midrib. The finely-toothed leaf edges and midrib are slightly rough to touch.
Reproduction
Male and female flowers are on separate plants. They occur in significant numbers about every 7-10 years. The inflorescences/flower clusters are in the form of a fleshy cylindrical spike or cone called a spadix. These appear at the top of the stem in spring, and are surrounded by 2, 3 or 4 succulent white or purple leaf-like structures called bracts. There can be up to 8 spadices at the top of a stem, each 7 cm x 1.5 cm at flowering, pale yellow or off-white, covered with tightly packed flowers, which individually are insignificant. On female plants the flowers develop into packed fruits, 8 mm x 2 mm x 10 mm, flattened longitudinally, which together form the ripe, corn-cob-like spadix growing to 15 cm x 3 cm in autumn. Initially green then brownish, these are sweet-tasting. Seeds, mostly in the lower part of the spadix, are 1 mm long, narrow on a long stalk. Flowers (called tāwhara) and sweet fruit (called ureure) are often eaten by possums, rats and birds. Possums are thought to aid seed dispersal by excreting them after eating the fruit. The flowers are said to be suited to bat pollination.
Uses
The bracts, fruits and flowers were a delicacy of Māori who made a liquor by fermenting the fruit. While not as strong as flax, the leaves were used for plaiting and weaving of bags and mats. Binding material was made from the roots, for use in making implements.
Where to find Freycinetia banksii?
You can see kiekie in many damp valleys around Wellington, e.g., Wellington Botanic Garden, Karori Sanctuary, Centennial Reserve, East Harbour and Kaitoke regional parks. It is plentiful in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi Ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 3, April 2011, page 12
April in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Fuchsia excorticata, Kōtukutuku, Tree fuchsia
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Fuchsia excorticata, tree fuchsia, kōtukutuku, is one of the few plants in our indigenous flora that is deciduous, that is, it usually sheds its leaves in winter. So look now for the trees up to 12 m tall and with trunks up to 60 cm diameter, with peeling, brown, papery bark. The dainty, deep red flowers hang down on slender stalks.
Tree fuchsia is common on bush edges in lowland to lower-montane forests. It colonises and stabilises steep gullies in e.g. the Tararua Range. The NZ fuchsia species are the only fuchsia species in the world which have blue pollen. Fuchsias are sometimes described as ‘possum ice-cream’ because possums can browse the trees to death.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 11, December 2014
December in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Fuscospora cliffortioides, tawhai rauriki, mountain beech
This month our subject is mountain beech, which is easily distinguished from the beeches with bigger, serrate leaves. Mountain beech and black beech have the same Māori name, tawhai (beech) rauriki (small leaves), because both have small leaves. In the November Tramper we described black beech. The following table shows how similar mountain beech and black beech are, but highlights the main differences by bolding them.
| Feature | Mountain Beech | Black Beech |
|---|---|---|
| leaves | 10-15 mm x 7-10 mm | 10-15 mm x 5-10 mm |
| serrations | none | none |
| shape | wider at the base; tip varying from rounded to pointed; leaf margins curving downwards | wider at the base; tip rounded; leaf margins flat, NOT curving downwards |
| texture | leathery | firm; surface puckered between veins |
| hairs | none on top; dense greyishwhite hairs underneath | none on top; white hairs underneath when young |
| trunk | diameter up to 1 m | up to 1.2 m |
| bark | pale on young trees; dark brown and fairly smooth on older trees | pale on young trees; black and vertically furrowed on older trees |
 Mountain beech leaves Left: upper surface. Right: lower surface Photo: Rob Lucas. Scanned by Jeremy Rolfe |
Distribution and habitat
Mountain beech occurs in montane and subalpine forest and scrub in the North Island from the Coromandel Peninsula south, and in the South Island. It is absent from Waikato, Mt Taranaki, Tararua Range, central Westland, eastern Otago and eastern Southland. It can thrive in the most severe conditions high in the ranges, yet it descends to sea level in the far south. Near the bushline, mountain beech is usually of reduced stature. Its foliage is distinctly and attractively layered. From October to January, look for red mistletoe / Peraxilla tetrapetala, and a yellow-flowered mistletoe, Alepis flavida, both of which favour mountain beech as a host.
Reproduction
From November to January, mountain beech produces minute flowers and tiny 'nuts', similar to those of black beech, with which it often hybridises. These 'nuts' appear from February to April. Like all our beeches, mountain beech has 'mast' years of heavy flowering and 'nut' production, as is happening this year - so DOC is distributing 1080 rodent poison over vast areas of our beech forests to counter the expected dramatic rise in rat, mice and stoat numbers, thus protecting native bird populations from these lethal invaders.
Particularly in the northern South Island, sap-sucking scale insects living in mountain beech trees excrete honeydew through translucent tubes onto their bark. Numerous species of native birds, butterflies, bees, and unfortunately, wasps, seek this sweet fluid, so you should always have anti-histamine in your First Aid kit.
Use
Mountain beech has been used for making gates, fences and floors, but is not as durable as black beech, so has not been in demand by the timber industry. For this reason, it has not often been removed from our rugged ranges which it protects from severe erosion, so its most important 'use' is to leave it protecting our high country.
As with all the other beech species, we have been unable to find reports of Māori rongoā medicinal uses for mountain beech. Please tell us if you hear of any. Mountain beech, Fuscospora cliffortioides, was named after G. Clifford, a Dutch nobleman and patron of botany. The suffix ‘ioides’ means 'resembling Cliffortia', a genus occurring in South Africa.
This is the 42nd botany column prepared by Barbara and Chris. The Tramper editor would like to express his gratitude for their contributions which in his view have greatly increased the newsletter’s worth. It is to be hoped there are many more plants out there in the forest.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 8, September 2014
September in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Fuscospora fusca, red beech, tawhai raunui
This endemic, shaggy-barked tree grows to over 30 m tall, with a trunk sometimes over 2 m in diameter, often with big buttresses at the base. Growth-rings indicate a life-span of 450 – 600 years. The most widely distributed of our beeches, it ranges from near sea level to over 1,000 m altitude. Red beech occurs in moist, mid-montane forests. In the North Island it occurs from Coromandel southwards, except on Mt Taranaki, parts of the Volcanic Plateau, either side of the Manawatu Gorge and south of Kaitoke. In the South Island, it occurs widely, except in parts of Westland, and eastern Canterbury. It is absent from Stewart Island. The most abundant red beech communities are on moderately-fertile, freely-draining soils on the river terraces and lower slopes of inland mountain valleys.
 Red beech leaves. Left: upper surface. Right: underside, showing domatia. Photo: Rob Lucas. Scanned by Jeremy Rolfe |
The leaves turn bright red in winter. Measuring 20-40 mm x 15-25 mm, they are usually larger and broader than our other beech species, hence its Māori name, tawhai raunui, 'big-leaved beech'. They have a relatively flimsy texture, 3, 4 or 5 side-veins and pointed teeth curving towards the leaf tip, some of them double. On the underside, there are usually one or two brownish, hair-fringed domatia (pores) where the side veins join the midrib. The leaf tips are pointed, not rounded – you may like to compare them with hard beech leaves in next article.
Beeches are described as monoecious (meaning 'having one home') because each beech tree has both male flowers and female flowers, so it is 'one home' for both sexes. The flowers are tiny, wind-pollinated, and clustered in groups of 1-5. They are followed by winged 'nuts' c. 7 mm long, distributed by gravity, wind or water. Flowering occurs from spring to early summer, and fruiting occurs from summer to autumn. When flowering and fruiting are in great abundance – usually every three years - it is called a masting season.
Red beech trees have shallow, wide-spreading root plates but no deep tap roots, which is why they may lack stability. On your tramps, you may have seen red beech trees toppled by severe gales, resulting in canopy gaps which allow light to penetrate to the forest floor. This promotes prolific germination of seeds, which later produce very dense thickets of beech saplings and small trees, intensely frustrating for off-track trampers.
When you are planning to tramp in beech forests in summer, take a supply of fresh antihistamine in your first aid kit for immediate emergency use in a wasp attack. In summer, beech forests swarm with hordes of the introduced common wasp, harvesting sugars in the form of honeydew, excreted by an endemic sap-sucking insect living in beech bark - usually red and black beech. Other insects and nectarivorous birds compete for this highly nutritious, sweetly fragrant substance, now the basis of a lucrative export industry. Sooty mould often appears on the bark, growing within the film of honeydew, producing a black, velvety coating. Fermenting honeydew gives beech forest its characteristic sweet smell.
Use
Māori used to make a black dye from its bark, and later settlers found it useful for tanning leather. No rongoā uses are known. Red beech derives its name from the colour of its timber, which is noted for its toughness and durability, yet it is easily worked. Hence it has played an important role in our history, its uses ranging from furniture to mine props, boat-building, wharves and railway sleepers.
The tallest and fastest-growing of the NZ beeches, red beech is a popular choice for public amenity and memorial plantings
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 10, November 2014
November in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Fuscospora solandri, tawhai rauriki, black beech
Tawhai means beech, and rauriki means small leaved. Māori used the name tawhai rauriki for both black beech and mountain beech because both have small leaves. You will be relieved to know that black beech is easy to distinguish from the big-leaved beeches which we have been describing to you recently, and after this, there's only one more beech species to learn!
Fuscospora solandri, black beech, was named after Daniel Solander, 1733–1783, a Swedish botanist who sailed with Captain Cook on his first voyage to New Zealand.
In the North and South islands, black beech grows in lowland and lower-montane forest, but like all our other NZ beeches, it is absent from Mt Taranaki. It is uncommon north of the Volcanic Plateau and East Cape. In the South Island, it extends to South Westland.
 Black beech leaves Left: upper surface. Right: lower surface Photo: Rob Lucas. Scanned by Jeremy Rolfe |
Unlike silver, red and hard beech leaves, black beech leaves have no serrations, and remain mid-green all year round. At 10-15 mm x 5-10 mm, they are elliptic, noticeably smaller, and have rounded tips. Their texture is firm, almost leathery, and their hairless upper surface has plump bulges between deeply impressed veins. Young leaves have dense white hairs underneath.
As with the other NZ beech species, black beech flowers are minute, but, en masse, their crimson stamens can make the whole tree appear crimson. Flowering is in spring and summer, followed by tiny 'nuts' c. 6 mm. long.
Black beech and mountain beech are fairly similar in appearance, and when they are in the same area, they frequently hybridise with each other. So if you're tramping in montane beech forests, and you're finding it difficult to identify black beech, it may be because this is happening. Mountain beech is the subject of next month's article, so we shall be devising a table to help you distinguish one from the other, just as we did for red and hard beech.
Use
Although at the time of writing, no rongoā uses for black beech are known to us, this species has played, and is still playing, a vital role in our industrial history. Despite its high silica content which blunted many a saw, its timber was used for an extraordinary variety of products ranging from bridges, railway sleepers, flooring, panelling and cartwheel spokes, to suites of fine furniture, and even paper. As with other NZ beech species, a solution made from its bark was much used by the tanning industry because of its high tannin content.
In the forest, sooty moulds blacken the bark, which gives the tree its common name. That very same black, furrowed bark is also the favourite home of the sap-sucking insect, Ultracoelostoma assimile, that produces honeydew, one of our prestigious, high-value exports. It is a favourite food of wasps as well. When you're tramping in beech forest, always remember to have fresh anti-histamine in your First Aid kit to counteract wasp stings.
Black beech make handsome, long-lived, evergreen specimen trees, their foliage being often attractively layered. Their maximum height is c. 23 metres, and their maximum trunk diameter is just over 1 metre.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 9, October 2014
October in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Hard beech, tawhai raunui, Fuscospora truncata
Look for hard beech along East Harbour Regional Park’s Main Ridge Track behind Eastbourne. At first sight, the leaves of this endemic tree are similar to those of red beech, as described in the September Tramper. Hard beech and red beech share the same Māori name - tawhai raunui – (big-leaved beech), and early botanists believed them to be the same species. To help you decide which beech species you are looking at in the bush, you might like to use the following table:
| Feature | Hard Beech | Red Beech |
|---|---|---|
| leaves | 25-35 mm x 20 mm | 20-40 mm x 15-25 mm |
| leaf tip outline | not pointed | pointed |
| texture | leathery | flimsy |
| side veins | 5 or more | 3, 4 or 5 |
| teeth | 8-12 each side, blunt | 6-8 each side, pointed, curved towards leaf tip |
| winter colour | green | red |
| trunk diameter | up to 2 m or more | up to 2 m or more |
| bark on large trees | vertically grooved | shaggy vertical strips peeling upwards |
 Hard beech leaves. Left: upper surface. Right: underside. Photo: Rob Lucas. Scanned by Jeremy Rolfe |
Try using this nmemonic to help you to distinguish hard beech from red beech: the word 'hard' has more letters than the word 'red' – hard beech has more side veins, and more teeth, than red beech.
Hard beech occurs in lowland forest and lower montane forest from near Mangonui, Northland, to Greymouth, on the West Coast, and the Wairau River in Marlborough. South of Greymouth, there is a 'beech gap', from which all beech species are absent, but south of the gap hard beech occurs in south Westland. All beeches are absent from Mt Taranaki.
Mature hard beech trees can be up to 30 m tall, with the trunks often buttressed at the base. The bark of the trunk is dark slate-grey to blackish. Fuscospora refers to the dark brown seeds; truncata indicates that the tips of the leaves are not pointed. Hard beech is monoecious, meaning that each tree bears male and female flowers. The red or orange stamens of the male flowers can be so numerous as to make the tree a spectacular sight in spring and early summer. Heavy flowering and seed production occur about every three years. This phenomenon, called ‘masting’, is characteristic of all our beech species.
Use
Hard beech had no known use by Māori. In the late 1800s the wood was popular for railway sleepers, mine props, wharf and house piles, floor joists, framing and weatherboards. The wood is the most durable of our beeches, and the hardest, hence its common name. Its silica content quickly blunts saws, chisels and power tools, so no wonder it is not popular for wood turning or furniture making! Because the bark is full of tannins, it has been used to tan leather. Hard beech, a handsome tree, is sometime planted as a specimen tree where there is space.
Our five beech species are members of an ancient Southern Hemisphere lineage, which has representatives on other parts of the former southern continent of Gondwanaland – Australia, South America and New Caledonia. It is also known from fossils found in Antarctica.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 4, May 2018
May in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Gahnia pauciflora, māpere, cutting sedge
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Many trampers have suffered cuts on their legs and hands after pushing past this sedge whose leaves have sharp edges. In form, it looks a little like the large grasses e.g., toetoe and introduced pampas, but the culms/stems are so different that you can identify it at a glance. For differences between sedges and grasses, see also the sedge Carex uncinata in the June 2012 In the Hills.
There are six species in the Gahnia genus in NZ, all of them endemic. They are among the largest sedges in NZ. In the Wellington area, the two species you are most likely to see are G. pauciflora and G. setifolia, which will be described in June. Gahnia species are host and food plants for the rare forest ringlet butterfly (Dodonidia helmsii). When chewed gently, the dark-coloured nuts have a raspberry-like or vanilla flavour, depending on perception.
Origin of the names
Gahnia is named after Swedish botanist, Henric Gahn (1747-1816); pauciflora means few-flowered. Distribution and habitat Māpere is present in Te Ika a Māui/North Island and in Marlborough and Nelson in Te Waipounamu/South Island. It likes clay and grows usually in forest or shrub land from sea level to 750 m.
Growth habit
G. paucifolia forms loosely tufted clumps up to about 90 cm high, which arise from short rhizomes. The long thin leaves, with rough cutting edges narrow to a thin point. Culms/stems rise well above the clumps of leaves, up to 120 cm, with few branches. They bear reddish-brown panicles/flowering stalks, which initially rise up at an angle from the clump, then droop with maturity. These can remain for up to two years. The plants are bright-green perennials.
Reproduction
Māpere flowers from December to January. Insignificant tiny flowers with both male and female parts, only some of which are fertile, each bear one fruit which becomes a very hard nut enclosed by a dark brown chaffy covering. The nut is a hard outer coating fused with the seed. Nuts are spindle-shaped, often grooved, sub-triangular in the middle and range in size from 5.5-7 mm long x 2-3 mm wide. The colour changes from an immature yellow-cream to a mature brownish-orange with a dark black tip always present.
Uses
We have been unable to find any rongoā/medicinal or other uses of Gahnia pauciflora. If you know of any, please tell us.
Where to find māpere
Look for it in the Aorangi, Remutaka and Tararua ranges, and the Eastbourne and Eastern Hutt hills, particularly in places with light overhead cover.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 5, June 2018
June in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Gahnia setifolia, māpere, cutty grass
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Gahnia setifolia, endemic to New Zealand, is a close relative of G. pauciflora, also a sedge, which was described in the May In the Hills.
Sedges and grasses
Plants are classified into families, genera and species by botanical taxonomists, based on their mode of reproduction. The sedges are in the Cyperaceae family which in New Zealand includes thirteen genera. There are six members of the Gahnia genus in our flora. The differences between sedges and grasses are described in the article on the sedge Carex uncinata in the June 2012 In the Hills.
Origin of the names
Gahnia is named after Swedish botanist, Henric Gahn (1747-1816); setifolia comes from Latin and means ‘with narrow or bristle-like leaves’. Its Te Reo name ‘māpere’ is usually restricted to this species but is sometimes used for G. pauciflora. The name ‘cutty grass’ describes the sharp edges of the leaves but incorrectly names the plant a ‘grass’ – it is a sedge! Many trampers have had their legs scratched when tramping through areas of dense cutty grass/māpere.
Distribution and habitat
Māpere/cutty grass is present throughout Te Ika a Māui/North Island although it is less common in the central area. In Te Waipounamu/South Island it occurs in Marlborough and Nelson. Look for it in well-lit forest and scrub up to 450 m above sea level.
Growth habit
Māpere/cutty grass forms stout, distinctive, densely-tufted clumps 100 cm - 250 cm tall, rising from thick, woody root-stocks. The leaves, tapering to very slender tips, have rough, inward-rolled edges. The stout, smooth culms/flower stalks, are c. 15 mm at the base and up to 10 mm diameter above it and up to 90 cm tall, much branched and held above the clump.
Reproduction
Māpere/cutty grass flowers in December and January. They are dark red-brown or blackish-brown, growing on panicles/branchlets, 40 mm-70 mm long, which droop from the culms. The nuts/fruit produced by the flowers have a chaffy covering which is white at first, later becoming dark red-brown. The nuts are 3.5 mm-4.5 mm long x < 2 mm in diameter. They are shiny, elongated egg-shaped, oval around the middle, and yellow-cream when immature, then reddish-brown all over.
Taste test
When chewed gently, the dark-coloured nuts may have a raspberry-like or vanilla flavour, depending on perception.
Uses
We have been unable to find any rongoā/medicinal or other uses of Gahnia setifolia. If you know of any, please tell us. Gahnia species are host and food plants for the rare forest ringlet butterfly/Dodonidia helmsii.
Where to find māpere/cutty grass
Look for it in the Remutaka and Tararua ranges, and the Eastbourne and Eastern Hutt hills, e.g., Horoeka St Reserve, Stokes Valley, particularly in places with light overhead cover. It is uncommon in western Wellington’s hills.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 5, June 2022
June in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Gaultheria antipoda, tāwiniwini*, Bush snowberry, fool's beech
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
'Gaultheria' is named after the French physician and amateur botanist, Jean François Gaulthier (1708-1756) of Québec; 'antipoda' is derived from ‘antipodean - of the Antipodes’. It is a member of the Ericaceae or heath family.
- Tāwiniwini is one of the shrub's several te reo names. The source of the term ‘fool's beech’ is the similarity in appearance between its serrated leaves and those of silver beech.
Distribution and habitat
Bush snowberry is endemic to Aotearoa. It is found throughout the country in lowland to montane shrubland and on open sites and rocky places, up to an altitude of about 1,500 m.
Growth habit
Tāwiniwini is a shrub up to ca. 2 m tall. The branchlets bear fine bristles. The shiny serrate leaves, 7-10 mm x 6-10 mm, have a prominent vein network. They are leathery, almost rounded and alternate on the branchlets.
Reproduction
Bush snowberry's small bell-shaped white flowers develop in the angle between a branchlet and the leaf stalk and appear in spring and summer. The fruit is dry, surrounded by an enlarged, more or less fleshy, five-lobed, white-to-red-to-purplish calyx up to ca. 10 mm diameter.
Uses
Tāwiniwini's calyx lobes, often called ‘berries’, are edible. They range from juicy and sweet to dry and tasteless. The plant contains oil of wintergreen; boiling the leaves makes a decoction that can be added to a poultice applied to wounds or taken internally as a treatment for asthma and bronchitis.
Where can you find tāwiniwini?
Look for bush snowberry in Lower Hutt's Hayward Scenic Reserve, East Harbour Regional Park and in the Remutaka, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 3, April 2013
April in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Geniostoma ligustrifolium var. ligustrifolium; hangehange
 Geniostoma ligustrifolium var. ligustrifolium, Hangehange Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Tramping in the bush in early Spring, have you ever wondered which plant was producing a delicate, unmistakably almond perfume? The origin of that lovely perfume is hangehange, a small, commonly-occurring understorey tree or shrub which is often found at the bush margin but can grow to c. 6 m or more. It has opposite pairs of glossy, pale green leaves, even paler underneath, with prominent veins underneath as well. Some people mistake them for coprosma leaves but hangehange's are much softer in texture than any coprosma leaves, and have no obvious domatia (breathing pores) on the underside. Broadly ovate in shape, they can reach to c. 9 cm long and c. 5 cm wide, narrowing abruptly to an extended, pointed apex.
The perfume emanates from dense clusters of little green flowers, about finger-nail size, dangling from stalks that encircle the leaf axils at regular intervals along the slender, brittle twigs. Some flowers are female and some are hermaphrodite. Each has five petals, turned back like collars around the domed centre. After the flowers are pollinated, the seeds develop inside sharply-pointed green capsules which later turn black and split open, but stay hinged at the base, looking remarkably like wide-open birds' beaks holding the seeds.
Sometimes referred to as NZ privet, hangehange is a NZ endemic, the only NZ member of the numerous, worldwide Loganiaceae family. The genus Geniostoma has about 35 other members, scattered from Madagascar to Mauritius and Australia. In NZ, it usually grows in rocky, well-lit, lowland sites, from the Three Kings, down to the north of the South Island. Often prolific in the understorey, it is frequently overlooked but is a most useful plant. Read on …......
Use
Recently I read in Murdoch Riley's Māori Healing and Herbal that hangehange foliage was used extensively by Māori as a food - for example there is a record from 1883 describing the leaves being used to wrap - and enhance the flavour of - food items for steaming in the umu. When in the bush last month I sampled a few leaves raw, and was agreeably surprised to find them very much like lettuce. The taste is not strong, but refreshing, so I have added hangehange to my list of native foliage which is readily available to munch as sandwich greens. You might like to try them yourself? The nectar is favoured by birds such as tūī, korimako, hihi and possibly waxeyes. It produces a delicious honey.
Hangehange leaves have rongoa (medicinal) uses, often having been used, with tītoki oil, as an ointment applied locally for skin infections. Murdoch Riley writes that Māori used the wood, “to generate fire,” but does not explain whether it was used like kaikōmako, (as the hard component), or like māhoe, (the soft component). Trampers will find the dead twigs useful as kindling. Māori weavers used the bark to produce a black dye, and in modern times, by using mordants, textile workers have produced not only black, but grey, purple and blue dyes from the leaves and fruit.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 7, August 2022
August in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Griselinia littoralis, Kāpuka, Pāpāuma, broadleaf
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
'Griselinia' is derived from the name of Francesco Griselini (1717-1783), a natural historian in Venice; 'littoralis' is derived from the Latin word 'littus', meaning sea-shore. It is a member of the Griseliniaceae family. The species has several te reo Māori names.
Distribution and habitat
Kāpuka / broadleaf is endemic to Aotearoa. It is found in lowland to montane forest and lower subalpine scrub from Hokianga Harbour southwards to Rakiura / Stewart Island. It is more common on Te Waipounamu / South Island than on Te Ika a Maui / North Island. It also grows on Raoul Island / Rangitahua.
Growth habit
Kāpuka is a tree 10 m – 17 m tall. The short, gnarled trunk with rough bark is up to 1.5 m in diameter. It sometimes grows as an epiphyte perching on other trees. The leathery leaves, 5-10 x 2-5 cm, shiny on top and paler underneath with a pale yellow mid-rib, are more or less symmetrical. The broad bases of the glossy, egg-shaped leaves are attached to the branchlets by their petioles / stalks.
Reproduction
Broadleaf has female and male flowers on separate plants. It flowers from November to January, then fruits from January to August. The groups of small green flowers, 2-7.5 cm long, may be branched or unbranched. The flowers are ca. 5 mm wide. The fleshy fruit, ca. 6 x 4 mm contains one seed which is black when ripe.
Uses
In early times, Māori used the inner bark to treat skin rashes. In 1918 it was reported that a blend of the leaves of kāpuka and other trees was used to attempt to cure ‘rutu’, an internal complaint which began in the lower abdomen. Wool can be dyed with extract from the bark. The wood has been used for house piles, railway sleepers, fence posts and boat building. The ripe berries can be eaten but are bitter.
Broadleaf is planted along track edges by some local authorities to help to deter weed species by shading. As a specimen tree It is popular here and overseas, e.g. in Ireland.
Pest animals
Deer, goats, possums and pigs browse broadleaf, inhibiting its growth.
Where can you find kāpuka / broadleaf?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, Johnston Hill Scenic Reserve, Lower Hutt's Hayward Scenic Reserve, Belmont Regional Park and in the Remutaka, Aorangi, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 11, December 2011
December in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Griselinia lucida, Puka, Broadleaf
Ten TTC trampers joined us for our annual November Native Plant Recognition trip. After climbing through Birdwood Reserve's second growth regenerating native forest, we continued around the Sanctuary's perimeter track, climbed Wright Hill and descended through Burrows Avenue Reserve to Karori Main Road - a green urban traverse at a sedate pace, because of so much botanical interest.
In Birdwood Reserve we admired an enormous Griselinia lucida, puka ,(but beware- this name is also given to another plant). This sprawling giant had morphed through several different stages in its 100-year life. Commonly called broadleaf, it usually starts life as an epiphyte, (as northern rātā often does), as a seed perched in the crotch of a large tree. We'll call that, Stage 1.
If it gets enough moisture and leaf litter there to survive, over the years it sends pale fawn, deeply-grooved roots down the outside of the host tree trunk, searching for nutrients and moisture from the soil. Meanwhile, up top, the broadleaf crown is also developing its very distinctive shiny, large-leaved foliage. You will have noticed broadleaf leaves that have fallen to the ground, about 15 cm. x 10cm, with sides of unequal length, so that they join the stalk at two different points. This Stage 2 of the broadleaf's life lasts for many years, during which the roots proliferate down and around the host's trunk, becoming so heavy that they top- ple the old host tree and the whole “ensemble” becomes horizontal, with the ancient host tree, now dead, inside.
The broadleaf trunks then gradually re-orientate themselves to grow vertically, often reaching to c. 8m. This is Stage 3.
We stress that broadleaf, like rātā, is never a parasite, just an epiphyte, using another tree as a crutch. Our TTC group saw two huge examples of Stage 3 of this natural phenomenon, one in Birdwood Reserve, and one in Burrows Avenue Reserve. Look for those pale, thick, deeply-grooved roots descending from the crown of a host tree, and the unusually large, shiny leaves. Broadleaf's erect clusters of tiny green flowers are followed by tiny purple fruit.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 4, May 2013
May in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Hedycarya arborea, Pigeonwood, porokaiwhiri
 Hedycarya arborea, Porokaiwhiri Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
 Hedycarya arborea, Porokaiwhiri Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
'Hedy carya' means 'sweet seed', 'arborea' is tree-like; 'poro' means ball, 'kai' is food, and 'whiri' is a flock of birds, hence the plant's fruit is the source of its Māori and common names.
There are about twenty members of the genus Hedycarya in Polynesia, New Caledonia and eastern Australia. Our species is endemic to New Zealand. It grows in lowland to montane forest on the Three Kings and North Island, and in the South Island as far south as Banks Peninsula in the east, and Fiordland in the west. Pigeonwood is shade-tolerant and usually grows in moist sites such as damp gullies.
Have you ever savoured the beautiful scent of the male flowers of pigeonwood? Surely it is one of the more memorable perfumes in the bush? It may seem surprising that a tree that often grows to 10 m tall with a trunk up to 50 cm diameter can produce such olfactory pleasure. Pigeonwood is dioecious, meaning that its male and female flowers are on separate trees. When the short-lived, pale yellow, 1 cm in diameter male flowers (pictured right) fall to the forest floor, notice how furry they are. Once pollinated, the female flowers produce clusters of bright-orange-red, 'beaked' fruit, 8 – 15 mm long, keenly sought and devoured by birds.
The bark, grey to dark brown, often gives rise to epicormic (suckering) shoots, just like tree fuchsia and māhoe. The darkish-green, shiny, leathery, leaves, 5 – 12 cm by 2 – 5 cm are mostly in opposite pairs on the branchlets, often slightly serrate towards the tip and hairy on the midrib and main veins. Look at the midrib - it is usually brownish-red, a useful diagnostic feature.
Use
Māori made use of the excellent resonant qualities of porokaiwhiri wood to make a variety of musical instruments. It was fashioned into pahū (drums or gongs), and an instrument called pūrerehua (bull-roarer). Pākuru, a percussion instrument, comprised two porokaiwhiri rods, the longer one held in the mouth with one hand while the shorter rod tapped out a rhythm on it with the other hand. Meanwhile the performer sometimes mouthed the words of the song, producing higher or lower tones, by closing or opening his/her lips. Titi, the batons used in tititorea (stick-games), were made from pigeonwood.
A fire-stick of porokaiwhiri was sometimes chosen to light a sacred fire in which to burn the first hair cut from a child's head. The head was regarded as sacred, so the hair could be used as an agent for good or evil, thus it was deliberately destroyed by burning, ensuring that no one could use it for evil purposes (mākutu).
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 9, October 2013
October in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Hoheria sexstylosa, houhere, a lacebark species
Hoheria sexstylosa is the only naturally-occurring Wellington lacebark species. Houhere is the Māori name for all lacebarks, and the source of their generic name. NZ's endemic genus Hoheria is a member of the worldwide Malvaceae (mallow) family. Most of them have tough fibres in their stems or leaves, ideal for ropes, mats or nets. Probably the most well-known of these is the cotton plant.
 Hoheria sexstylosa, near Holdsworth Lodge Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
H. sexstylosa is found in lowland to lower-montane forest. It is widespread in the North Island, south from the Waitakeres, and in the South Island, from Northwest Nelson to Marlborough, Buller and Banks Peninsula. Growing to c. 8 m, with a trunk of c. 30 cm diameter, its stringy fibres form strong, lacy layers underneath its smooth, grey-brown outer bark. This layer so intrigued some early European settlers that they called the tree “thousand jacket”, whereas Māori called it “houhi ongaonga”, the houhere with leaves serrated like stinging nettle, (ongaonga). Like the bark of most trees, houhere's outer bark has many rongoā (medicinal) uses. The lacy inner bark was used for bandages, soft wrappings for babies, tīpare (headbands) and decorative poi coverings, etc.
Juvenile H. sextylosa leaves are small and rounded. Adult leaves are narrowly ovate, c. 10 x 2 cm. On a recce for TTC's botany trip in Burrows Avenue Reserve, Karori, we found a huge, ancient, multi-trunked tree with only one leaf within reach, all the rest being high in the canopy. Trying to pick it to inspect it, we found the stem was attached by a string of tough, creamy, lacy bark, thus solving the puzzle - the tree was a lacebark, possibly c. 100 hundred years old.
You have probably noticed that houhere flowers appear in autumn. They are hermaphrodite, having both male reproductive parts: stamens, and female reproductive parts: stigmas. The specific name 'sexstylosa' refers to the six styles ('specialised stalks') with their stigmas poised on top, ready to receive pollen from bees, flies or butterflies. In dense clusters, the dainty, white flowers, c. 2 cm in diameter, are non-specialised, being open in form and slightly perfumed, attracting a wide range of potential pollinators. The petals are often notched at the tip.
The unusual fruiting structures are arranged radially in circular clusters of 6 or 7, joined at the centre, green to start with, then changing to a distinct 'pinky-brown'. Each developing seed has a 'wing' or 'sail' attached, making it easier for wind or water to distribute.
Unfortunately, for many years, Wellingtonians have been planting Hoheria populnea, a northern lacebark species, in their gardens, and this city is now overrun with it - it has become weedy. Its leaves are very much broader, and more rounded than H. sexstylosai's slender ones, often with a purplish tint underneath. It has rapidly - one might even say aggressively - colonised Wellington's wild places, so please consider planting our own Wellington lacebark instead.
The main reason why we chose H. sexstylosa for this article, is that it is the only lacebark species that belongs in Wellington. Once numerous, like so many other natives, it has been wiped out by development and is now a seldom-seen refugee. Next time you're tramping the rugged hinterland of the Wellington southwest peninsula, keep your eyes peeled for the few refugia where this handsome tree survives e.g. the upper Waiariki Gorge and above the main forks in Te Kopahou Reserve. It is also a numerous component of Tararua forests - look for it there.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 6, July 2017
July in the hills with Chris Horne
Hymenophyllum demissum, irirangi, piripiri, drooping filmy fern
Origin of the names
Hymenophyllum means ‘membranous leaf’. The Greek word for ‘membrane’ is ‘hymen’; the Greek word for ‘leaf’ is ‘phyllon’; ‘demissum’ comes from the Latin word ‘demittere’, and its adjectival form ‘demissus’ means ‘drooping, arching and hanging down’. ‘Piripiri’ refers to the fern’s growth habit of ‘keeping close together’, densely populating part of a forest floor. ‘Drooping filmy fern’ refers to a distinctive feature of this fern.
Distribution and habitat
Irirangi grows on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Wai Pounamu/South Island, and on the Kermadec, Rakiura/Stewart, Rekohu/Chatham and Antipodes islands. It is our most common filmy fern in lowland to montane forests except for the drier parts of the eastern South Island. Often forming carpets over extensive areas of the forest floor, it also grows on banks, logs, tree roots and rocks, and sometimes perches on trees as an epiphyte. You will sometimes see areas of the forest floor with a dense cover solely of irirangi. This fern may have a chemical defence against competition which prevents seeds from other plants germinating among it, or slowing their growth if they do germinate.
Rhizome
Irirangi has a slender, long-creeping rhizome.
Growth habit
The stalks/stipes are 4-17 cm long, stout, smooth and usually lack wings. There are narrow wings along the length of the stems/rachises. The fronds, which arch stiffly from the stalks, are 7-25 cm long x 3-15 cm wide, elliptic or ovate, pale green or bright green, and smooth. Because irirangi’s fronds are mostly one cell thick and translucent, like those of Leptopteris hymenophylloides and L. superba (The Tramper May and June 2017), it can easily be confused with those two species when they are immature. Despite irirangi’s fronds looking delicate, they rarely curl up in dry weather.
Reproduction
The spores are held in sori. These usually appear in pairs on the ends of the pinnae/segments which are oblong with smooth margins – see image. The fronds are often sterile.
Uses
Māori used the fronds as ‘a bitter tonic’, according to Charles Jeffs, 1888, as noted on a pressed specimen in the King Tawhiao Collection at Te Papa (Specimen 1499). The fronds were also used as a scent (H W Williams 1975).
Where to look for drooping filmy fern
This widespread fern is common in Wellington city’s reserves, where it is often the only member of the Hymenophyllum genus. You can see it in Otari-Wilton’s Bush, four of the Botanic Garden’s five native forest areas, Centennial Reserve, Miramar and Burrows Avenue Reserve, Karori, etc. Look for it when you tramp in lowland to montane fore
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 7, August 2017
August in the hills with Chris Horne
Hymenophyllum dilatatum, matua mauku, irirangi
Origin of the names
Hymenophyllum means ‘membranous leaf’. The Greek word for ‘membrane’ is ‘hymen’, and for ‘leaf’ is ‘phyllon’; ‘dilatatum’ comes from the Latin word meaning ‘broadened, expanded’. Note: ‘irirangi’ is also the name of Hymenophyllum demissum described in July’s Tramper. Matua means ‘parent’, or more particularly ‘father’; mauku is the name applied to filmy ferns in general. There is no English name for matua mauku.
Distribution and habitat
Matua mauku grows on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Wai Pounamu/South Island, and Rakiura/Stewart, Rekohu/Chatham and Auckland islands. It is common throughout, in coastal to montane forests, except for the drier parts of the eastern South Island. It usually perches as an epiphyte on trees; it also grows on fallen trunks, sometimes on banks, and rarely on the ground.
Rhizome
Matua mauku has a slender, wiry, long-creeping rhizome.
Growth habit
Matua mauku is NZ’s largest filmy fern, and one of the most distinctive in the genus. The stalks/stipes are 2-15 cm long, stout, smooth, with narrow wings for some of their length. The stems/rachises have broad wings along their length. The fronds are 8-40 cm long x 4-15 cm wide, ovate or narrowly ovate, bright green and smooth. The pinnae/segments are 2-3 mm wide. Because matua mauku’s fronds are mostly one cell thick and translucent, like those of Leptopteris hymenophylloides and L. superba, (Tramper May and June 2017), it can easily be confused with those two species when they are immature.
Reproduction
The spores are held in very broad sori which develop slightly sunk into the ends of the broad pinnae/segments – see image.
Uses
There are no recorded Māori or Pākeha uses for matua mauku. Where to look for matua mauku Look for this widespread fern when you tramp in lowland to montane forests, e.g., in Otari-Wilton’s Bush and in the Remutaka and Tararua ranges. Look for its smooth fronds with smooth margins, the broad flat wing along the stem/rachis and much of the stalk/stipe, and the very broad segments/pinnae. It is worth carrying a hand lens to study these features.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 1, February 2014
February in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum, kidney fern, raurenga
 Hymenophyllum nephrophyllum. A single fertile frond Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
This strikingly beautiful, endemic, filmy fern is one of New Zealand’s twenty-nine species in the family of filmy ferns, the Hymenophyllaceae. Kidney fern is in the genus Hymenophyllaceae. ‘Hymeno’ comes from the Greek word for ‘membrane’, and ‘phyllum’ from the Greek word for ‘leaf’. The first section of the second part of its name, ‘nephro’ comes from the Greek word for ‘kidney’, which aptly describes the shape of the shiny, green fronds. Kidney fern, was formerly Cardiomanes reniforme, and then Trichomanes reniforme.
Look for it in the North Island, on the West Coast of the South Island, on Rakiura / Stewart Island, and on Rekohu / Chatham Island. You may see it thriving in a wide range of habitats in lowland to montane forests, from damp forest on the West Coast, to humus on exposed lava fields on Rangitoto Island.
The glossy, translucent fronds are 3-10 x 4-13 cm, on stipes (stalks) 5-25 cm long. Have you noticed how the fronds curl up tightly in dry weather, to reduce moisture loss, then recover quickly after rain? Kidney fern creeps for many metres over the forest floor, sometimes forming extensive patches. It can climb banks and rock faces, and scramble up tree trunks.
The reproductive parts, spores, are contained in sori, which are crowded around the upper margin of the fronds, and slightly sunk into them. Each sorus is protected by a 'lid' of colourless issue called an indusium. When the spores are mature, the indusium shrivels, enabling the spores to be released.
Raurenga often grows in patches in which little else can grow. This is because it produces a phytotoxin which inhibits the root growth of other plants.
In New Zealand Ferns, published in 1921 by H B Dobbie, and revised by Marguerite Crookes in 1952, Dobbie described this plant’s unusual, un-fern-like appearance: “I shall never forget my first sight of it. I could not believe it was a fern.”
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 6, July 2020
July in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Knightia excelsa, Rewarewa, New Zealand honeysuckle
Origin of the botanical name
Knightia is named after the plant physiologist Thomas Andrew Knight (1758-1838), President of the Royal Horticultural Society of London and friend of Sir Joseph Banks; excelsa refers to the tall, eminent form of the tree. Rewarewa is a member of the Proteaceae family, found mostly in South Africa, Australia and South America. There are only two native species in the family in New Zealand.
Distribution and habitat
Rewarewa is endemic to New Zealand. It is found on Te Ika a Māui/North Island and on Te Waipounamu/South Island only in the Marlborough Sounds. It is common in lowland forests and lower montane shrubland, often on poor soils and sites which are recovering after milling or fire.
Growth habit
Rewarewa is a tall cylindrical to conical tree up to about 30 m tall with a trunk up to 2 m in diameter and ascending branches. The smooth bark is brownish. Branchlets are clad in a red-brown, velvety tomentum. Leaves are alternate or whorled, thick, leathery, narrow, oblong and coarsely serrated. Juvenile leaves are yellow green, 15-30 cm long x 1-1.5 cm wide and adult leaves are dark green, 10-20 cm long x 2.5-4 cm wide.
Reproduction
Flowering occurs from October to December. Many flower buds arise along a short stem up to 10 cm long, clad in red-brown, velvety tomentum. The flower bud has four segments, which peel back from the tip as the flower ripens leaving the long, yellow-green, female part exposed to receive pollen. Each segment contains the male parts, which release pollen before the segment curls tightly to form a coil at the base of each flower. Pollination is by birds and bees. The base of the style develops into a fruit, becoming a woody, tomentum-covered pod up to 4 cm long. The pod splits into two halves when ripe a year later. Winged seeds are up to 25 mm including the wing and are wind dispersed. The mildly flavoured flowers are a preferred food of possums. Rodents eat rewarewa seeds, thus in forests where rodent control is intensive, rewarewa seedlings are often common.
Uses
Whilst not durable, rewarewa timber was used by Māori for stockades because it does not burn readily. The reddish-brown, speckled wood has been used in ornamentation and domestic items. Rewarewa’s red-brown honey has a malty flavour. Rongoā/medicinal uses include the inner part of the bark being bandaged onto wounds for healing. An extract has been found to be similar to some used for lowering blood cholesterol levels. A Māori tradition involving a rewarewa pod was used to determine an infant’s fortune
Where can you find rewarewa?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, Wellington Botanic Garden, Centennial Reserve, Trelissick Park, East Harbour Regional Park and in the Akatarawa, Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, #9, October 2019
October in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Lastreopsis glabella, , Smooth shield fern
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Lastreopsis glabella is the last of the three locally occurring similar-looking ferns in the Lastreopsis genus that we are describing. Some New Zealand botanists have recently moved this species to the genus Parapolystichum, but existing published books and lists name it as Lastreopsis, which belongs in the large fern family Dryopteridaceae. This species is notable for its smooth stalk/stipe which distinguishes it from the other two species.
For general comments about ferns, see Asplenium oblongifolium, and a description of the life cycle of ferns in Asplenium bulbiferum.
Origin of the botanical name
Lastreopsis means like ‘lastrea’, a fern known to the ancient Greeks, and ‘opsis’ from the Greek word meaning ‘looks like’; ‘glabella’ comes from the Latin word ‘glabellus’ meaning ‘hairless, smooth’. Lastrea was named after Austrian botanist Charles Jean Louis Delastre (1792-1859).
Distribution and habitat
Smooth shield fern is common on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, on Te Waipounamu/South Island, on Rakiura/Stewart Island and Rēkohu/Chatham Island. Look for this common fern in damp coastal or lower forests on stream-sides, banks or among rocks. Smooth shield fern is endemic to New Zealand.
Growth habit
Smooth shield fern is a terrestrial fern with erect rhizomes, i.e. the rhizome doesn’t creep or climb but just forms a small mass from which the stipes grow. The three-pinnate, dark-green, oval fronds are 10 cm-35 cm long x 5 cm-25 cm wide. They have a thin but firm feel with flat brown scales at the base of the rachis (frond stalk) and reddishbrown hairs on the upper surfaces of veins and midribs, but hairless elsewhere. The stalks/stipes (stalk beneath the frond) are 3 cm-30 cm long. The stalks, stems/rachises are hairless and smooth. Run your fingers up or down a stalk to feel the smooth surface.
Reproduction
When mature, clusters of sporangia make up the round sori on the underside of the fronds. These are in one row either side of the midrib away from segment/pinna margins. At first they are covered by a kidney-shaped covering/indusium which falls off as the spores ripen. The spores are spread by the wind.
Uses
We have not found any records of uses of smooth shield fern. Please tell us if you know of one.
Where to find smooth shield fern?
You can see smooth shield fern in Burrows Avenue and Johnston Hill reserves, Karori, Huntleigh Park, Crofton Downs, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Wellington Botanic Garden’s bush areas, Khandallah Park, Centennial Park, Miramar and Zealandia. It also occurs in Hayward Scenic Reserve, Lower Hutt, East Harbour Regional Park, Akatarawa Forest and the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 8, September 2019
September in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Lastreopsis hispida, pongaweka, tuakura, hairy fern
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Lastreopsis hispida is one of four similar-looking ferns in the Lastreopsis genus, within the large fern family Dryopteridaceae. It is notable for its bristly hairy stalk/stipe which distinguishes it from the other three species.
For general comments about ferns, see Asplenium oblongifolium in the October 2015 Tramper, and a description of the life cycle of ferns in Asplenium bulbiferum in the December 2015 Tramper.
Origin of the botanical name
Lastreopsis is derived from‘lastrea’, a fern known to the ancient Greeks, and ‘opsis’ from the Greek word meaning ‘looks like’; ‘hispida’ comes from the Latin word ‘hispidus’ meaning ‘bristly, with stubble’. Lastrea was named af ter Austrian botanist Charles Jean Louis Delastre (1792-1859).
Distribution and habitat
Hairy fern is common on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, in coastal regions on Te Waipounamu/ South Island, on Rakiura/Stewart Island and Rekohu/Chatham Island. It can be found on the forest floor in coastal to lower montane forests and occasionally as an epiphyte perching on the lower trunks of trees and tree-ferns. Hairy fern also grows in Australia; thus it is a New Zealand native species, but it is not endemic to New Zealand.
Growth habit
Pongaweka is a terrestrial fern with creeping rhizomes. The finely divided, brownish-green, egg-shaped fronds are 18 cm-50 cm long x 15 cm- 40 cm wide. Their harsh feel results from the black bristly scales and tiny brown hairs on the veins and midribs. The fronds contain a compound which acts as an insecticide which protects them from damage by insects. The stalks/stipes are 12 cm-50 cm long. The stalks, stems/rachises and rhizomes are covered with long, black, bristle-like scales and tiny glandular hairs. Run your fingers up or down a stalk to feel the rough surface.
Reproduction
When mature, clusters of sporangia make up the round sori on the underside of the fronds, as in the image above. These are in one row either side of the midrib away from segment/pinna margins. At first they are covered by a kidney-shaped covering/indusium which falls off as the spores ripen. The spores are spread by the wind.
Uses
We have not found any records of uses of hairy fern. Please tell us if you know of one.
Where to find pongaweka/tuakura?
You can see pongaweka in Wellington’s Burrows Avenue Reserve, Huntleigh Park, Johnston Hill Reserve, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Post Office Bush and two of Wellington Botanic Garden’s bush areas. It also occurs in Hayward Scenic Reserve, East Harbour Regional Park, Akatarawa Forest and the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 7, August 2019
August in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Lastreopsis velutina, , velvet fern
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Lastreopsis velutina is one of four similar-looking ferns in the Lastreopsis genus, within the large fern family Dryopteridaceae. It is notable for the unmistakable velvet feel of the fronds which distinguishes it from the other three species.
For general comments about ferns, see Asplenium oblongifolium in the October 2015 Tramper, and a description of the life cycle of ferns in Asplenium bulbiferum, in the December 2015 Tramper.
Origin of the botanical name
The name Lastreopsis is derived from lastrea, a fern known to the ancient Greeks, and opsis meaning ‘looks like’. Velutina means ‘velvety’. Lastrea was named after Austrian botanist Charles Jean Louis Delastre (1792-1859).
Distribution and habitat
Velvet fern is endemic, found on Te Ika a Māui/ North Island and from Cape Farewell to Dunedin on Te Waipounamu/South Island. Look for velvet fern in drier coastal and lowland forest. It is less common than the other Lastreopsis species.
Growth habit
Velvet fern is a terrestrial fern with erect, noncreeping scaly rhizomes and erect stalks/stipes, of ten tuf ted, 15-40 cm long. The thin, dark brownish-green fronds are broadly oval, 15-55 cm x 15-45 cm, and are covered on all surfaces in numerous tiny soft reddish-brown hairs, giving the velvet feel. There are three to four pinnae or frond segments, each divided into smaller pinnae. The primary or lower pinnae of the fronds are stalked, and the lowest of the pair of secondary pinnae are particularly elongated downwards, creating the angled appearance of the whole frond. The final segments are blunt-ended.
Reproduction
When mature, clusters of sporangia make up the round sori on the underside of the fronds. These are seen in one row either side of the midrib away from pinna margins. At first they are covered by a kidney-shaped covering/indusium which falls off as the spores ripen and then spread by the wind.
Where to find Lastreopsis velutina?
You can see velvet fern in a few western areas of Wellington - Huntleigh Park, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, and some pockets of bush at Makara. Look for it on the Kohekohe Loop Track, Paekākāriki and Barry Hadfield Nīkau Scenic Reserve, Paraparaumu. It also occurs in Akatarawa Forest and the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 6, July 2019
July in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Laurelia novae-zelandiae, pukatea, pukatea
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Pukatea is a member of the Atherospermataceae family. There are only two species of Laurelia in this family, our pukatea, and L. sempervirens which occurs in Chile in a similar type of habitat.
Origin of the botanical name
Laurelia means ‘like the bay tree’; ‘novae-zelandiae’ means ‘of New Zealand’ . Pukatea is the Te Reo and common name.
Distribution and habitat
Pukatea is endemic to Aotearoa/New Zealand. It grows at lower elevations on Te Ika a Maui/North Island, and on Te Waipounamu/South Island as far south as northern Marlborough in the east and Fiordland in the west. Look for it in lowland semiswamp and gully forests.
Growth habit
Pukatea is a tree up to 35 m tall. The trunk is up to 2 m diameter with roughly triangular plankbuttresses which spread from the base. The buttresses, which provide stability on the often shallow, wet soils on gully floors, may extend into roots above the forest floor with shield-like pneumatophores / breathing roots up to 1 m tall. These absorb air for the roots in water-logged soil. The bark is pale, smooth and spongy with corky cells which absorb air for the living tissues in the trunk. The small branchlets, green or redbrown, are rectangular in cross-section. Roll one between your fingers to check. Clustered near the ends of the branches, the leaves, in opposite pairs, are glossy and dark green on top and paler underneath. They are 4-8 cm long x 2.5-5 cm wide, with blunt, evenly-spaced serrations.
Reproduction
Pukatea has small, greenish female and male flowers. The flowers, up to 6 mm across, grow in groups up to 3 cm long between the branchlets and the leaf stalks. The flowers appear from October to December. The small, dry, flask-shaped, one-seeded fruit appear from October to January. About 5 mm long, they have ‘parachutes’ of hairs to aid dispersal by the wind.
Uses
Māori carved the elaborate prows of waka from pukatea’s plank buttresses. Pukatea trunks become hollow in old age, so Māori sometimes hid their dead in the hollows. They scraped the inner bark to make a decoction to treat running sores and toothache. The strong, light wood has been used for weatherboards, roofing, boat-building and cabinet-making.
Where might you find pukatea?
You can see pukatea in Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, as a TTC native-plant group did on 28 April, in Karori Sanctuary and East Harbour and Kaitoke regional parks. Look for it in scattered sites in eastern Wairarapa, such as Carter Scenic Reserve, east of Carterton.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 4, May 2019
May in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Leptecophylla juniperina subsp. juniperina, mingimingi, prickly mingimingi
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Prickly mingimingi is a member of the southern heath family, Ericaceae. It was previously known as Cyathodes juniperina.
Origin of the botanical name
Leptecophylla means ‘fine pointed leaf’; juniperina means ‘like juniper, a conifer’. Mingimingi in Te Reo means ‘curly’ or ‘twisted’. ‘Prickly’ distinguishes it from mingimingi described in the April Tramper.
Distribution
Prickly mingimingi is endemic to Aotearoa/NZ. It grows on Te Ika a Maui/North Island, Te Waipounamu/ South Island and Rakiura/Stewart Island. Look for it in dry lowland to montane forest and shrubland up to 1000 m elevation.
Growth habit
Prickly mingimingi is an erect or spreading shrub up to 5 m tall, with black bark. The sharp-tipped, leathery leaves are 6-15 mm long x 0.5-1 mm wide, brown green above and pale on the underside. They have down-curved edges and usually grow in tufts. Look on the underside of the leaves to see the prominent parallel veins.
Reproduction
The greenish white flowers, 3-4 mm long and attached singly, appear from August to December. The fruit appear from October to March. They are berries, 4-7 mm in diameter, varying from white to pink to red to crimson to dark purple. Each berry has one seed.
Uses
Māori made infusions of the leaves to treat asthma, kidney disorders, rheumatism and infected wounds. Early settlers made survey pegs from the durable wood. In spring, the tiny flowers produce nectar from which bees produce a mild-flavoured amber honey. The sweet berries are sometimes eaten, but are often rather dry.
Where to find prickly mingimingi?
You can see prickly mingimingi on drier hillsides in the southern North Island, e.g., in Taita Scientific Reserve, Hayward Scenic Reserve, and in beech forest in East Harbour and Kaitoke regional parks. Look for it in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 4, May 2017
May in the hills with Chris Horne
Leptopteris hymenophylloides, Heruheru, Crape fern, Crepe fern
Origin of the names
‘Lepto’ comes from the Greek word for ‘thin’; ‘pteris’ is the Greek word for ‘fern’; ‘hymenophylloides’ means ‘resembling Hymenophyllum’, which is the name of the genus of the filmy ferns. These will be the subject of a future article. ‘Heru’ in Te Reo means ‘comb’ – please refer to the Uses section below.
Distribution and habitat
This endemic fern grows on Te Ika a Māui/North and Te Wai Pounamu/South islands, and on Rakiura/Stewart and Rekohu/Chatham islands. Heruheru is common throughout the country, although it is more common in northern areas. Look for it in lowland to montane forests up to 1000 m, on damp banks along tracks and creeks, and also on exposed sites on open ridges.
Rhizome
Heruheru’s erect, woody, trunk/rhizome can be 50 cm tall, and occasionally up to 100 cm tall.
Growth habit
The stipes/stalks of the fronds are 15–50 cm long, pale brown, with scattered hairs, and ear-like lobes at the base. The dark green fronds are finely divided, flat, and almost triangular, 20-100 cm long x 15-35 cm wide, and have scattered hairs. The segments/pinnae are all in the same plane.
The fronds of heruheru, and its relative, the striking Leptopteris superba / Prince of Wales’ feathers,^footnote^', are mostly one cell thick and translucent, just like the fronds of filmy ferns, with which they can be confused when immature. Place your hand under a heruheru frond, or the frond of one of the filmy ferns, then move your hand from side to side. Shadow-like, you will see your hand moving on the other side of the frond.
Reproduction
The sporangia, the capsules which contain spores, are scattered on the undersides of the fronds, not grouped in discrete sori, as in the ferns described so far in The Tramper. This distinctive feature of the Leptopteris genus led to it being classified as a member of an ancient family of ferns, the Osmundaceae.
Uses
Māori used the hard stipes/stalks of the fronds as teeth for heru/hair combs. (Best, 1899, 1908). No uses of heruheru for rongoā or food have been recorded in NZ. Have you heard of any? Heruheru was exported to England in the 1800s, together with several other species of ferns, during a ‘fern craze’ there.
Where to look for heruheru
Look for this widespread fern whenever you go tramping in Wellington city’s reserves, and on tramps elsewhere up to 1,000 m above sea level. Its delicate fronds are an eye-catching feature in many bush areas.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 5, June 2017
June in the hills with Chris Horne
Leptopteris superba, heruheru, Prince of Wales feathers, crape fern, double crepe ferns
Origin of the names
The Greek word for ‘thin’ is ‘leptos’; the Greek word for ‘fern’ is ‘pteris’; ‘superba’ comes from the Latin word meaning ‘magnificent, exalted’. ‘Heru’ in Te Reo means ‘comb’ - see Uses section below.
Concise Oxford Dictionary: ‘crape’ = crepe; ‘crape fern’ = NZ fern with tall, dark-green plumes; ‘crepe’ = gauze-like fabric with wrinkled surface.
Distribution and habitat
On Te Ika a Māui/North Island, this fern is rare in Northland and Coromandel, and common south of the Bay of Plenty to Wellington. On Te Wai Pounamu/South Island, it is abundant in Westland. It also occurs on Rakiura/Stewart Island. Look for it in cool, wet, dense, montane forests up to 1,000 m elevation, and, rarely, in dwarf form in subalpine scrub, up to 1,350 m elevation.
Rhizome
Leptopteris superba has an erect trunk/rhizome up to 100 cm tall.
Growth habit
The stalks/stipes of the fronds are 1.5-8 cm long, pale brown, with brown, woolly hairs and ear-like lobes at their bases. The dark green, woolly, hairy fronds are 25-100 cm long x 8-25 cm wide, and taper equally towards both ends. There are 35-60 pairs of segments/pinnae crowded along the stem/rachis. The lowest segments are only 0.5-1 cm wide. Their ends, which are linear, stick up at right angles to the plane of the frond, like the pile of a carpet.
The fronds, like those of Leptopteris hymenophylloides, are mostly one cell thick and translucent, just like the fronds of filmy ferns, with which they can be confused when immature. Place your hand under a frond, or the frond of one of the filmy ferns, then move your hand from side to side. Shadow-like, you will see your hand moving on the other side of the frond.
Reproduction
The sporangia, the capsules which contain spores, are scattered on the undersides of the fronds. This is in contrast to the ferns with discretely-grouped sori, as described in articles earlier than May 2017. This distinctive feature of the Leptopteris genus led to it being classified as a member of an ancient family of ferns, the Osmundaceae.
Uses
Māori used the hard stipes/stalks of the fronds as teeth for heru/hair combs (Best, 1899, 1908). Māori bruised the fronds to a pulp to make a poultice for bruises. They used the fronds to line hangi/ovens when steaming tawa kernels (Best, 1903).
Leptopteris superba was exported to Victorian England in the 1800s during a ‘fern craze’ there, where it remains popular. Fibre from this fern was once used for orchid-growing, but fibre from sedges and tree ferns is easier to obtain.
Where to look for heruheru/Prince of Wales feathers
Look for this widespread fern whenever you go tramping in cool, wet montane forests up to 1000m elevation, or occasionally higher. Its delicate, filmy-textured, fluffy fronds are a photogenic feature in our forest parks and national parks. In NZ Ferns and Allied Plants, Dr Patrick Brownsey describes this plant as “One of our most beautiful ferns”, rightly called superba.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, # 2, March 2013, page 7
March in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Mānuka, Leptospermum scoparium
Lepto = thin; spermum = seed; scoparium = like a domestic broom
Did you notice as you tramped along the Ridge Track in East Harbour Regional Park soon after leaving the top of Wainuiomata Hill Road the variety of species of young, broadleaved trees, including five-finger and māhoe, flourishing under the canopy of the mānuka shrubland? This community of young trees, ferns, climbers etc, is a fine example of the role that mānuka, a pioneering species, plays in the regeneration of native forest on land that has been cleared by fire, by accident, or for farming.
Have you noticed the forest of very large, historic, kānuka in Wellington Botanic Garden, below the Met Office building? This is an outstanding feature of the five areas of native forest in the garden.
Mānuka is a shrub or tree, growing to 10 m tall. A NZ native, it occurs from lowland to sub-alpine areas in dry or swampy sites in the North, South, Stewart and Chatham islands. It also occurs in Australia.
Mānuka, Leptospermum scoparium; Kānuka, Kunzea robusta
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Kunzea = named after Gustav Kunz; ericoides = resembling heath (Erica)
Kānuka is a shrub or tree growing up to 30 m. A NZ endemic, it occurs in well-drained, lowland to montane areas on the Three Kings, and in the North and South islands. It often colonises land recovering after a fire, and, like mānuka, plays a role in the natural recovery of disturbed sites towards eventual forest. It can grow for over a century, but cannot regenerate in its own shade, so is eventually over-topped and replaced by other tree-species.
Since the article was originally publised the name of kanuka has changed. What was called Kunzea ericoides in the article is now Kunzea robusta. Kunzea robusta is the largest and most widespread of the 10 kanuka species and is the only species found in the Wellington region away from sandy coastal areas. Kunzea ericoides is now known to be restricted to the northwest South Island.
Differences
Use the table below to help distinguish mānuka from kānuka:
| Feature | Leptospermum scoparium | Kunzea robusta |
|---|---|---|
| Part of plant | Mānuka | Kānuka |
| Trunk diameter | up to c. 15 cm | 60 cm or more |
| Foliage (grasp it firmly) | prickly | not prickly |
| Flowers; diameter | single; c. 10 mm | in clusters; 4 – 6 mm |
| Seed capsules | c. 6 mm diameter; hard, woody; persist | 2 – 4 mm diameter; not woody; fall off early |
| Capsule lids | rounded | sunken |
| Seeds | released in high temperatures | in same season as flowering |
Mānuka is smaller than kānuka, and has larger flowers and larger seed capsules than kānuka.
Use
TTC trampers will have noticed that mānuka's strong, hard-wood, rot-resistant branches are often laid as “corduroy” on many a mucky track.
Mānuka was used by Māori for waka decking, fish hooks, fishing rods, traps for eels and other fish, garden tools, spears, clubs, and long poles, called huata used to thrust through the palisades of enemy pā. An infusion of pounded and boiled mānuka and kōwhai bark was applied to the back to ease pain. Mānuka's white gum was also used as an emollient for burns and scalds.
Captain Cook’s crew used the leaves of mānuka to make a spicy tea. In the early days of settlement in Otago, men smoked mānuka bark mixed with tea leaves, as a substitute for tobacco. Mānuka honey, which is collected from mānuka and kānuka, is dark-coloured and strongly-flavoured, however it needs to be remembered that not all varieties of mānuka have the well-known medicinal properties for which consumers are sometimes charged a premium. Kānuka wood is very hard, so has often been used for tool handles and wharf piles. Kānuka gum mixed with oil from tītoki, was used as a perfume.
Both species have been used for firewood that produces great heat, and for fence posts. Kākāriki / parakeets use the leaves and bark of both species to rid themselves of parasites.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 7, August 2013
August above the bushline with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Leucogenes species, NZ edelweiss
Edelweiss is one of our many mountain daisy species, renowned world-wide for their beauty and diversity. The Asteraceae (daisy) family is where our four endemic NZ edelweiss species nestle. They are all woody sub-shrubs, often domed in shape, usually less than 15 cm high, but are all easily identified as edelweiss by their silvery-white, densely-packed foliage, and their white, woolly bracts that look just like petals, surrounding the central, yellow disc florets.
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Leucogenes leontopodium
Club members are familiar with our logo – Leucogenes leontopodium, the North Island edelweiss. A few years ago some members realised the logo was the European edelweiss, so in late 2010 the General Committee ratified members' choice to change it to our North Island edelweiss instead. Most of you will know L. leontopodium, found at low-to-high-alpine altitude in both islands, from Mt Hikurangi to Nelson and Marlborough. Immortalised in the tramping song, Slopes of Mt Alpha, the 'shapely lady' concerned had edelweiss adorning her hair, so we assume it was L. leontopodium.
The name 'leonto-podium' is from the generic name of the European edelweiss. It means lion-footed, referring to the central, grouped, yellow florets of the compound flower, resembling a cat's foot-pads. The surrounding petal-like bracts look like a flower c. 25 mm in diameter. The dense rosettes of pointed, silvery leaves form an attractive, geometric pattern, and the whole shrub often adopts a cushion form.
In the Tararuas, look for it in fellfield and rocky sites. If you are traversing the Tararua tops, between East Peak and West Peak, you may notice the area where this edelweiss hybridises with another member of the Asteraceae family in the vicinity, producing a mosaic of prostrate intermediate forms which look like tiny savoury scrolls on the ground.
Leucogenes grandiceps
Leucogenes grandiceps, the “large-headed” edelweiss is the South and Stewart islands' edelweiss , widespread from low-to-high-alpine altitude. However its flowers are no larger than those of the other species. It is not found in the North Island. Often growing on rocky outcrops, this species is usually shorter-stemmed than L. leontopodium, with broader, shorter leaves.
Leucogenes neglecta
Leucogenes neglecta is the Marlborough edelweiss. It was only relatively recently recognised as different from L. grandiceps, hence the epithet of 'neglected'. Botanising in Marlborough in the late 90s, we remember lively discussions about how it might eventually be classified. Its rocky habitat is like that of the other species, but it has noticeably smaller flowers, silvery-blue floral bracts, leaves that are more closely appressed to the stems, and a much looser form instead of a more cushiony habit. Its Conservation Threat Status is Naturally Uncommon. Look for it on rocky outcrops when you're tramping between the Wairau and Awatere catchments.
Photo: Barbara Mitcalfe
Photo: Barbara Mitcalfe
Photo: Barbara Mitcalfe
Leucogenes tarahaoa
Tarahaoa is the Māori name for South Canterbury's Mt Peel, so keep your eyes peeled for this species when you are there - but watch where you tread - it is a Mt Peel endemic, with the Conservation Status of Nationally Vulnerable. To quote from Threatened Plants of New Zealand, (Canterbury University Press), “The plants are extremely vulnerable to trampling by livestock such as sheep, and by humans. There is some evidence to suggest that the population is in decline. Some of the more accessible plants have disappeared recently, possibly through illegal collection.”
L. tarahaoa grows in a restricted area, high on the narrow spur leading to the summit. It often forms very firm, domed cushions, standing proud of the soil surface by up to 15 cm. or more - see image. The whole plant is silvery-grey, with neat, densely-packed rosettes of narrow, pointed leaves and woolly, white bracts reaching up and out, like fingers, to greet you.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 3, April 2019
April in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Leucopogon fasciculatus, mingimingi, soft or tall mingimingi
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Soft mingimingi belongs to the southern heath family, Ericaceae. The name mingimingi is also used for a few other native plants: e.g., Cyathodes juniperina and Coprosma propinqua.
Origin of the botanical name
Leucopogon refers to the white beard of the hairy flower petals; fasciculatus means ‘little bundles bearer’, referring to the flower spikes and clusters of flowers. Mingimingi in Te Reo means “twisted” or similar.
Distribution
Mingimingi is endemic to Aotearoa/NZ. It grows on Manawatāwhi/Three Kings, Te Ika a Māui/North Island and Te Waipounamu/South Island as far south as Canterbury.
Habitat
Look for it in dry shrub-land or light forest from sea-level to 1500 m.
Growth habit
Mingimingi is a spreading bushy shrub or small tree up to 5 m high. The bark is fissured, darkbrown to black, and may peel off in strips. The leaves are bright pale-green, paler on the underside, flat, linear-lanceolate, 12-25 mm long x 2-4 mm wide, rather clustered at the ends of stems in a whorled fashion, flaring out from the stem. They are pointed but not sharp to touch, obscurely veined, with 3-7 veins parallel to the margins, more prominent on the underside.
Reproduction
The sweet-scented, white or greenish flowers are bi-sexual, flowering from late winter to early summer. Flowers are small, bell-shaped on hanging spikes, 1-3 cm long. There are 6 to 12 flowers in each spike. The fruit, produced from spring to early autumn, are round berries, 2-4 mm in diameter, mostly red but can be white or pink. Each berry has one seed.
Uses
Infusions of leaves have been used for headache, influenza, asthma, bronchitis and alimentary disorders. One report mentions a poultice of boiled leaves can be used for baldness. The berries are sometimes eaten.
Where to find Leucopogon fasciculatus?
You can see soft mingimingi on many dryer hillsides and in bush around Wellington, e.g., Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush and Makarā Peak, and in beech forest in East Harbour and Kaitoke regional parks. It is plentiful in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 8, August 2015
August in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Libocedrus species
The name Libocedrus is derived from Greek: libernos, incense, and kedros, cedar, because the wood is scented. NZ's two libocedrus species are long-lived endemics. They are usually called NZ cedars, but professional botanists say we should call them NZ cypresses because they have the scale-like leaves of cypresses, not the needle-like leaves of cedars. They have very tall, unbranched, lower trunks, topped by conical-shaped crowns, like Xmas trees. As emergents, they are easily recognised from a distance by this shape, plus their distinctive grey-brown bark hanging off in long, narrow, vertical strips.
Libocedrus plumosa, Kawaka, NZ Cedar
Libocedrus plumosa - 'plumosa' describes its ‘feathery’ leaf form.
Distribution:
Te Ika-a-Māui North Island - sea level - 600 m elevation, from Te Paki to Kawhia in the west, and Gisborne in the east. Formerly it was a common forest type in western Waikato, but is believed to have been logged to near-extinction. Te Waipounamu South Island - as far south as Westhaven Inlet.
 Kawaka and Pāhautea Photo: Rob Lucas (with permission) |
Libocedrus bidwillii, Pāhautea,
Libocedrus bidwillii. Mountain cedar was named after plant collector John Bidwill (1815–1853), believed to be the first European to climb Ngāuruhoe.
Its Māori name 'pāhautea' means 'grey-bearded', probably referring to the thick clusters of Hymenophyllum malingii, an unusual, silvery-grey, endemic, epiphytic, filmy fern which usually clothes its trunks. The fern is named after Christopher Maling, (1841–1916), a NZ surveyor.
Distribution:
250 – 1200 m elevation. Te Ika-a-Māui North Island - Coromandel Peninsula to the Tararuas. Te Waipounamu South Island - throughout the west side, but only scattered on the east side. Rakiura Stewart Island - absent.
Reproduction in Libocedrus
Libocedrus are monoecious: a kawaka tree bears both female and male cones, and so does pāhautea. Libocedrus are unique among NZ conifers, because they bear seed cones with woody bracts (modified leaves).
Pollen produced by the male cones and carried on the wind, enters the tiny apertures (micropyles) of the female cones, and fertilises them.
The seeds of both species develop one large wing and one small wing. These make a seed spin like a helicopter rotor, facilitating its wind-driven dispersal beyond the drip-line of the parent tree. This makes it more likely that the resultant seedling will thrive because it will not have to compete with the parent tree, for nutrients.
Uses
The dark-red wood of both species has never been available in large quantities. Kawaka wood has been used for cabinet-making and roofing shingles. It is so resistant to burning, that it has sometimes been used to make fire-doors! Pāhautea wood, light, but very durable, has been used for boat decking, railway sleepers, roofing shingles and weather-boards.
Thanks to Jeremy Rolfe for the image, scanned from Dawson and Lucas NZ’s Native Trees, p. 78.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 2, March 2022
March in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Lophoyrtus bullata, Ramarama,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Lophomyrtus’ is derived from the Greek words for myrtle tree and crested or tufted; ‘bullata’ comes from the Latin word ‘bulla’ for ‘bubble’ meaning blistered or puckered, referring to the leaf surface. Ramarama in te reo Māori means gleaming. Ramarama is one of the two New Zealand members of the Lophomyrtus genus, previously described in the genus Myrtus. These genera are in the family Myrtaceae which also includes mānuka, rātā, pōhutukawa, maire tawake and other closely related species in Aotearoa, all at risk from myrtle rust disease.
Distribution and habitat
Ramarama is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on the margins of coastal and lowland forests on Te Ika a Māui / North Island and on Te Waipounamu / South Island in Nelson and Marlborough near the sea. It can be a conspicuous component of the understorey of lowland podocarp riparian forest.
Growth habit
Ramarama is a shrub up to 8 m or more tall with slender divaricating, finely hairy branchlets and young leaves. The trunk is up to 20 cm in diameter with reddish, fibrous, flaking bark. Branchlets are initially 4-angled, becoming terete with age. The leaves are in opposite pairs on petioles 2 – 5 mm long; the leaf blades are 15 – 50 x 10 – 20 mm, slightly leathery and orbicular in shape. The shiny leaf surface has raised blisters between the veins. The upper side is dark green to yellow green, mottled and/or spotted with red, maroon or purple-black circular blemishes, the underside pink or red-tinged.
Reproduction
The white flowers are solitary, borne in the leaf axils, and are about 12 mm in diameter, on hairy stalks about 2 cm long. Each has four petals and a brush of numerous stamens, bunched loosely in four weakly defined whorls. The fruit is a broadly ovoid, dark red or black berry, 6-8 mm long. The seeds are numerous, kidney shaped, 2.7 - 5.5 mm diameter, glossy and very hard. Seed coats are dark brown. Flowering is from November to March and fruits develop from January onwards, taking a year to mature. Birds eat the fruits and spread the seeds.
Uses
Ramarama berries have been a food source in the traditional Māori diet. The ripe berries contain anthocyanins as dark pigments, which play a role not only in reproduction, by attracting pollinators and seed dispersers, but also in protection against various abiotic and biotic stresses. The tough wood was used for digging sticks and axe and chisel handles. Ramarama is cultivated as an attractive garden plant and florists use the leaves.
Where can you find ramarama?
East Harbour Regional Park, South Karori Rd, Burrows Avenue Reserve, Hawkins Hill, Horoeka Reserve in Stokes Valley, Huntleigh Park Reserve, Khandallah Park, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Te Ahumairangi-Tinakori Hill and in the Remutaka, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
Hybridisation
Ramarama hybridises with rōhutu (Lophomyrtus obcordata). The resultant hybrid, often named Lophomyrtus x ralphii in horticulture, was once thought to be a separate species.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 86, no 7, August 2014
August in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Lophozonia menziesii, silver beech, tawhai
Scientists at the Allan Herbarium, Landcare Research, Lincoln, have reclassified the New Zealand members of the beech genus Nothofagus into two genera, using analyses of DNA sequences and morphology. Under this new classification, the NZ beeches are:
| Fuscospora fusca | red beech | tawhai raunui |
| Fuscospora truncata | hard beech | tawhai raunui |
| Fuscospora cliffortioides | mountain beech | tawhai rauriki |
| Fuscospora solandri | black beech | tawhai rauriki |
| Lophozonia menziesii | silver beech | tawhai |
 Silver beech leaves Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Who hasn’t been impressed by the twisted, gnarled, moss and lichen-covered multiple trunks of silver beech trees in the cloud-forest near Alpha Hut? They can grow to 30 m tall, with trunks to 2 m in diameter. The common name comes from the bark, which is silver-grey, particularly on young trees. They grow in montane forest and subalpine shrubland from Coromandel Peninsula through the North and South islands, mostly on the wetter sides of the ranges, and down to sea level in the far south. They are absent from Mt. Taranaki and the Ruahine Range.
Silver beech leaves stay on the tree for several years, unlike those of the other NZ beech species, which retain their leaves for only a year. The dark-green, alternate leaves are rounded, thick, 6-15 x 5-15 mm, with small, rounded teeth. Tawhai is ‘monoecious’, meaning that its small, inconspicuous female and male flowers grow on the same tree. The wind transfers the pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers, which produce hard, dry, 'nuts', c. 5 mm long, each with two or three 'wings' to facilitate wind dispersal.
'Lophozonia' – (crested zone) - refers to parts of the fruiting structure; ‘menziesii’ refers to Archibald Menzies (1754-1842), surgeon with Capt. George Vancouver on the Pacific voyages of the ship ‘Discovery’.
About every three years, like the other NZ beech species, silver beech has a good flowering year, called a mast year, but it does not flower at all in some years. This winter, DOC’s massive programme of aerial 1080 pest/animal poison distribution coincides with the present, NZ wide, mast year. The enormous volume of seed falling from the country’s beech trees is causing an explosion in the numbers of rats in our native forests. Once this bountiful food source is eaten, hungry rats and stoats will resort to killing hundreds of thousands of native birds, lizards and invertebrates, possibly causing extinctions. This pattern of wanton killing has been continuing since ship rats and stoats were introduced in the 1800s.
Use
Māori obtained a black dye from tawhai, for colouring tī kōuka / cabbage tree and flax leaves used in weaving. The dried bark contains about 7% tannin, and was the main source of bark used by a Nelson tannery. We have not found any mention of tawhai having rongoā properties.
The timber is strong but rots when exposed to the weather. However, it is one of our better timbers for steam-bending. Coopers used to bend it into shape to make tubs, baskets and wine casks. Its attractive grain and pale pink to deep-red colour make it popular for furniture and wood-turning.
In the following editions of The Tramper we plan to describe the other four NZ beech species. We thank David Ogilvie, who requested a description of the re-naming of the NZ beech species.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 11, December 2021
December in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Melicope simplex, Poataniwha, tātaka,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Melicope’ is derived from the Greek words ‘meli’ meaning ‘honey’ and ‘kope’ meaning ‘cutting’, referring to the nectary with notched glands; ‘simplex’ comes from the Latin word ‘simplex’ meaning simple or single, referring to the single adult leaf. Poataniwha is one of the two New Zealand members of the Melicope genus, the other being its large-leaved relative wharangi, described in the November Tramper. Both are in the family Rutaceae which has only three members in Aotearoa. The family includes the species of citrus we enjoy.
Distribution and habitat
Poataniwha is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on the margins of coastal and lowland forests from near North Cape southwards on Te Ika a Māui / North Island and on Te Waipounamu / South Island.
Growth habit
Poataniwha is a shrub or small tree up to 5 m or more tall with slender divaricating, smooth branchlets. The trunk is up to 10 cm in diameter with smooth brown bark. The leaves of juvenile plants are trifoliate with very slender petioles up to 1-2 cm long. The leaflets are 5-10 x 3-10 mm, with rough or almost smooth edges. The leaves of adult plants are single 5-10 mm, rhomboid to suborbicular and jointed to a flattened petiole, up to 5 mm long. The leaf arrangement is alternate or clustered on short branchlets. The leaves are gland-dotted, with edges that have shallow, rounded teeth, a feature described as crenulate. Crush a leaf to sample the aroma of the oil in those glands – it is like the aroma of crushed wharangi leaves. Poataniwha sometimes hybridises with wharangi *.
Reproduction
The flowers are small, about 5 mm, with slender stalks also about 5 mm long. Each flower has four greenish to white petals, creating a star-shape. Flowers are fascicled / clustered on the branchlets. Flowering is from September to November and fruits develop from December to April. The fruit is a 2-4-celled capsule, each cell with a seed. Seeds, ca. 3 mm long, black and glossy, are eaten and spread by birds.
Uses
We have not found any records of uses of Melicope simplex. Please tell us if you know of one.
Where can you find poataniwha?
Pockets of bush in Island Bay and Makara, Huntleigh Park, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Trelissick Park, Upper Hutt bush remnants, Wairarapa bush remnants, Remutaka Range.
- Hybridism. In 1871, botanist John Buchanan named a plant Melicope mantellii. He wrote that the plant was ‘common in the neighbourhood of Wellington’, and was associated with M. ternata and M. simplex. In 1906, Cheeseman suggested a hybrid origin. Field observations have abundantly supported this view. Reference: Flora of New Zealand. Volume 1. H. H. Allan. 1961.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, #10, November 2021
November in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Melicope ternata, Wharangi,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Melicope’ is derived from the Greek words ‘meli’ meaning ‘honey’ and ‘kope’ meaning ‘çutting’, referring to the nectary with notched glands; ‘ternata’ comes from the Latin words ‘terni’ meaning ‘three each’ and ‘folium’ meaning ‘leaf’. Wharangi is one of two members of the Melicope genus, the other being its small-leaved relative M. simplex, poataniwha. Both are in the family Rutaceae which has only three members in Aotearoa. The family includes the species of citrus we enjoy.
Distribution and habitat
Wharangi is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows in coastal to lowland forests, especially on their margins, on the Rangitāhua / Kermadec Islands, Manawatāwhi / Three Kings, Te Ika a Māui / North Island, and in northern areas of Nelson and Marlborough, Te Waipounamu / South Island.
Growth habit
Wharangi is a shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall. The trunk is up to 20 cm in diameter with finely-fissured pale brown bark. The branchlets are slender and when young are pale yellow-green. The leaves are opposite and trifoliate / three-fingered. They are on petioles / leaf stalks to ca. 5 cm long. The pale green, thinly leathery leaflets are 5-10 x 2-4 cm, have smooth wavy edges and are dotted with tiny glands. The petiolules, which join to the petiole, are up to 5 mm long. Crush a leaflet to enjoy the strong citrus-like smell.
Reproduction
the small yellowish/whitish flowers appear in clusters on branch tips in September and October on stalks / peduncles about 2 cm long. Birds and insects pollinate the flowers. The fruit appear from October to February. The seeds, ca. 5 mm long, black and glossy are eaten by birds, which spread them.
Uses
Māori used branchlets as head wreaths at tangi and chewed the gum. Early cabinet-makers used the wood for inlaying.
Where can you find wharangi?
look for it in the Tararua and Remutaka ranges and in reserves in the Wellington area.
Geography
Te Wharangi¹ is the ridge linking Makara Peak, Mt Kaukau and Rangituhi/Colonial Knob.
¹ The Great Harbour of Tara. G Leslie Adkin. Whitcombe and Tombs Ltd, 1959. pp 102-103 and maps IV, VI.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 4, May 2011, page 12
May in the hills with Chris Horne
Melicytus ramiflorus, Māhoe, Whiteywood
Melicytus ramiflorus, māhoe, whiteywood, a member of the violet family, is endemic to New Zealand. Because it is not highly palatable to possums, it has become a common indigenous tree species in forests in the Wellington region.
Mature trees can reach 10 m, or more, with several trunks over 40 cm in diameter. You may have noticed that they often have many slender, upright branches, called epicormic shoots, near the base of their pale trunks. In Spring, māhoe’s young, light-green leaves highlight its presence in gullies, but on sites exposed to gales, its twigs are often bare of leaves. Look on the forest floor for decaying māhoe leaves which produce delicate skele- tons showing their network of veins.
Māhoe is dioecious, with male trees producing male flow- ers, and female trees producing female flowers. Both sexes flower from November to March. Female māhoe produce violet to dark-blue fruit from November to April, in dense clusters along the branches.
Māori made fire by rubbing the soft, dry wood of dead māhoe with a pointed, hard stick of dry kaikōmako.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 96, # 1, February 2024
February in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Metrosideros diffusa, aka tea, White climbing rātā
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Metrosideros means ‘iron-hearted wood, core of iron’. It is derived from the Greek words ‘metra’ meaning ‘heartwood’ and 'sideron' meaning ‘iron’. The genus is a member of the Myrtaceae family which in Aotearoa / New Zealand includes six species of vines and six species of trees: northern rātā, southern rātā, Bartlett's rātā, Parkinson's rātā, pōhutukawa and Kermadec pōhutukawa.
Distribution and habitat
White climbing rātā is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows in lowland and lower montane forests, especially on their edges throughout Te Ika a Māui / North Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rakiura / Stewart Island.
Growth habit
This species of rātā is a slender liane / vine up to 15 m or more tall. Along the stems many tiny roots develop which penetrate into the bark of the host plant for support, enabling the vine to climb. The older stems can be several centimetres in diameter. The pale bark is in thin strips. The branchlets are indistinctly 4-angled and finely hairy. The thin, oblong, glossy leaves are 7 – 8- (15) x 3-8 mm, have very short stalks / petioles and are opposite, being arranged in two rows. The ends of the leaves are rounded or pointed. Look for the distinctive intramarginal vein inside each edge on the underside of a leaf.
Reproduction
The scented white to pink 10-12 mm flowers develop on woody stalks below the leaves from October to January. The prominent feature of the flowers is the numerous long stamens, typically like other species of the genus. The seed capsules which develop from January to March are 3-4 mm in diameter.
Uses
Birds feed on nectar from the flowers then spread the pollen. Bees collect the nectar which contributes to the production of honey. Where can you find white climbing rātā – aka tea?
Look for it
In Ōtari Wilton's Bush, most mature Wellington bush reserves and secondary growth, regional parks and in the Remutaka, Aorangi*, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
- It is uncommon in the Aorangi Range.
Note - See on our web site The Tramper Vol. 84 No. 1, February 2012 on page 12 the description of another rātā vine – Metrosideros perforata.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 1, January 2012
January in the forest with Chris Horne and Barabara Mitcalfe
Metrosideros perforata, Akatea, Clinging rātā
When tramping in January, February or March, look for this slender, woody, vine, up to 15 m tall, with small white or pale-pink flowers, c. 2 cm across, crowded towards the end of the twigs. The conspicuous brush-like stamens are an invitation to bees, bellbirds and tūī to collect pollen and/or nectar. The tiny leaves, 6-12 mm x 5-9 mm, are thick, usually rounded, have down-curved, smooth edges, and are arranged in opposite pairs. Their undersides are dotted with glands, giving them a perforated appearance, hence ‘perforata’.
Young akatea use numerous fine aerial roots to cling to the bark of host trees that they use merely for support – they are not parasitic. In open sites, where there are no trees to climb, they can form shrub-like mounds.
Akatea grows in coastal and lowland forest and forest margins in the North Island, and in the South Island as far south as northeast Canterbury, and Martin’s Bay in the west. Should you be lucky enough to visit the Three Kings Islands, look for it there too.
Māori used the tough, pliant stems of some species of rātā vines for the tikitiki (topknot) style of hairdress- ing. From a rātā vine, they made a small ring about 50 mm in diameter, gathered their hair together on top of the head, slipped the ring over the hair, then slid the ring down close to the head. When you break a bootlace, a pliant stem of a rātā vine may be the solution!
And remember that some of the rātā honey you enjoy may be derived from Akatea.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 2, March 2012
March in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Metrosideros robusta, Northern rātā
Te rātā whakaruruhau, “rātā, the giver of shelter”, describes the reverence which Māori felt for these huge, long-lived trees that sheltered a heavy load of other plants perching in their crowns.
Northern rātā is one of five endemic NZ tree rātā species, all of which can become towering forest giants, emergent at 20-30m in height, with trunks measuring several metres in diameter – we measured the diameter of one in the Akatarawa Forest at 16 tramping boot lengths! Northern rātā leaves have an intra-marginal vein encircling the leaf just inside the outer edge, a characteristic of the metrosideros genus. Dark green, neatly elliptic in shape, the leaves measure about 30mm x 20mm, but it's that tiny notch at the tip that is the clinching clue, so remember: “n” for notch = “n” for northern.
Trampers in tall forest may not notice northern rātā in the canopy, but the pale, flaky bark of the trunk is a giveaway, and bright crimson leaves on the forest floor can indicate its presence. Masses of scarlet, staminate flowers adorn the crown from November to January and their nectar produces a distinctive honey. The inner bark of rātā was used extensively for dressing wounds and as a treatment for ringworm. Because of its extraordinary strength, heaviness and durability, rātā, “ironwood”, was often chosen to make logging rails, bogies, and even cogs in the milling machines.
Northern rātā used to be numerous in coastal to lower montane (up to 700m a.s.l.) forest from North Cape to Westland. Imagine Te Ahumairangi / Tinakori Hill when it was covered with thousands of scarlet-flowering northern rātā, delighting nectar-feeding tūī and korimako. When these rātā were fired to create space for pasture, they burnt for months on end. (“You would think we had set the world on fire”. wrote Albert Kilmister, a 19th-century Karori farmer).
Northern rātā sometimes germinates on the ground, as most trees do, but often starts life as a wind-blown seed in the crown of a large, mature tree such as a rimu. It is not parasitic, just epiphytic. Over many 100s of years, its roots snake down towards earth, some even encircling the supporting tree's trunk. Eventually these roots fuse together like a trunk, by which time the old, supporting tree has declined and rotted away. This process, misunderstood, was responsible for some people regarding rātā as a strangler.
Possums can kill a huge, mature rātā in two years by preferentially eating its leaves, buds and flowers. Decline in pollinators such as bees, lizards, bats and nectar-feeding birds also threatens the survival of the species. A further threat in and near urban areas is the presence of overwhelming numbers of pōhutukawa, Metrosideros excelsa, with which it hybridises. Northern rātā, Metrosideros robusta, is a naturally-occurring Wellington species, once very numerous here. Pōhutukawa is not a naturally-occurring Wellington species. Humans introducing and planting it so extensively here may have risked the eventual loss of northern rātā as a separate species.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, no 1, February 2017
February in the hills with Chris Horne
Microsorum pustulatum subsp. pustulatum, Kōwaowao, Hound’s tongue
Microsorum means ‘with little sori’; pustulatum means ‘raised blisters’, referring to the lumps on the upper side of the fronds of this fern, which match the clusters of sori below. The repetition of ‘pustulatum’ in the botanical name is to separate it from a closely related species in Australia. You will find the Māori name easy to remember, as a dog’s bark resembles ‘wao wao’. The common name comes from the outline of the juvenile frond.
Distribution and habitat
Kōwaowao is widespread. It ranges from the Kermadec Islands and Three Kings, right down to the Auckland and Antipodes islands, and to Rēkohu/Chatham Islands. It is abundant throughout, except in central Otago. You will often see it creeping on the ground, or over rocks, or epiphytic (growing perched on other plants). It occurs in montane forest, scrub and open areas, usually in drier habitats.
Rhizome
A prominent feature of kōwaowao is its fleshy, far-creeping, branching, often slightly bluish-green rhizome, 4-10 mm in diameter, with blackish-brown scales pressed against it.
 Hound’s tongue, kōwaowao Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Growth habit
The fronds, leathery and very variable in form, are bright glossy-green above, and paler below, with prominent veins. The juvenile fronds have simple, undivided, strap-like blades, narrowly elliptic, 7-25 cm long x 1-3 cm wide.
The adult fronds are 6-45 cm long x 4-30 cm wide. The fronds have up to twelve pairs of pinnae/segments up to 17 cm long x 4 cm wide, with blunt points and smooth or wavy margins, and adnate bases i.e. they are attached to the rachis by their whole width. The fronds are attached to the rhizome by pale brown stipes/stalks 2-25 cm long. This form is described as pinnate, which you can liken to a feather with its filaments either side of the quill.
Reproduction
The underside of fertile fronds bear numerous orange-brown round sori, sunk into the underside of the pinnae/segments, creating bulges on the top side of the frond. The sori are clustered in single rows each side of the main and secondary veins. There may be up to forty sori on each lobe of a frond. When the sori ripen and open, they release the spores, which are spread by the wind to germinate in new sites.
Uses
The Te Urewera Tūhoe people cooked the young fronds as a vegetable in hangi/earth ovens. Some Wellington sites Hound’s tongue is common in the city’s reserves. You may spot it covering several square metres of the forest floor, or climbing trees, including the rough trunks of pine trees on the Town Belt. You may also see it scrambling up stone or brick walls.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, no 2, March 2017
March in the hills with Chris Horne
Microsorum scandens, Mokimoki, Fragrant fern
 An adult mokimoki frond Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Microsorum means ‘with little sori’; scandens means ‘climbing’, referring to the climbing habit of this fern. It is closely related to hound’s tongue/kōwaowao, described in the February Tramper. When crushed, a frond of mokimoki smells like freshly cut grass. After drying, it has a sweet and enduring aroma, hence the name ‘fragrant fern’.
Distribution and habitat
Mokimoki is common in coastal and lowland forest from North Cape to as far south as Franz Josef, Westland. It also grows on the Chatham Islands, and in Australia, including Norfolk Island. Thus it is native to New Zealand, but it is not endemic. Look for it creeping on the ground, or over rocks, or climbing trees. Mokimoki prefers damper habitats than kōwaowao, which is the reason it is rare on the east coast of the North and South islands.
Rhizome
Mokimoki’s rhizome is 2-4 mm in diameter, far-creeping and much-branched. It is densely clad in dark brown scales up to 5 mm long. The stipes/stalks, 3-10 cm long, are pale brown and slender and have very narrow wings.
Growth habit
The fronds, dull green and thin, have three different forms, often occurring on the same plant: 5-35 cm long x 5-10 mm wide, strap-like, and tapering to an obtuse tip. This form occasionally bears sori. 20-30 cm long x 5-10 cm wide, irregularly divided with the lobes arranged either side of the mid-rib, mainly in the middle section of the frond. The lobes are from 1-5 cm long, sometimes on only one side of the frond, and they gradually taper from the base up to 10 mm wide. The terminal pinna/segment is long, and usually bears sori. 35 - 50 cm long x 18 cm wide, with up to thirty smooth-edged lobes up to 8 cm long or more, tapering from their bases. The terminal pinna/segment is long and usually bears many sori.
Reproduction
When the round, orange-brown sori on the underside of fertile fronds ripen and open, they release the spores which are spread by the wind to germinate in new sites.
Uses
Māori used mokimoki as a scent for their hair and bodies, and in their whare. Where to look for mokimoki Mokimoki is a common forest fern, so look for it wherever you tramp, in bush up to about 1000m above sea level.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 3, April 2018
April in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Muehlenbeckia astonii, pōhuehue, shrubby pōhuehue
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the names
Muehlenbeckia is named after the Alsatian physician and botanist, Heinrich Gustav Muehlenbeck (1798-1845); astonii honours the work of Bernard Cracroft Aston CBE, (1871-1951), a chemist at the Dept. of Agriculture and a plant collector. His grave is in Karori Cemetery. In Te Reo Māori the name pōhuehoe is applied to several species of climbing or trailing plants. The February and March issues of In the Hills included descriptions of two other species of Muehlenbeckia, both vines, also called pōhuehue, although this month’s species is a shrub.
Distribution and habitat
Shrubby pōhuehue is endemic to New Zealand, i.e. it occurs nowhere else in the world. Its Conservation Status is ‘Nationally Endangered’. On Te Ika a Māui/North Island it occurs in scattered localities in the Wairarapa, and on Wellington’s south coast. On Te Waipounamu/South Island it occurs on coastal and other lowland sites in Westland, in Marlborough, and on Canterbury’s eastern riverbeds and terraces.
Growth habit
Shrubby pōhuehue can grow to 2 m tall, with a canopy up to 2 m diameter. Its growth habit is divaricate, meaning that it has numerous stems. These are up to 1 cm diameter, stiff, spread at wide angles, intertangled, and bearing many slender, flexible, interlacing, zigzag branchlets. The bark of older branches is dark grey-brown. Cane-like shoots sometimes develop from near the shrub’s base. The leaves, which grow in clusters of two or three, are 3-10 mm in diameter. They are thin, usually without teeth, heart-shaped, with the notch at the base, or with the notch at the tip. They grow on short petioles/stalks distributed along elongated branchlets. The species is deciduous, i.e. it loses its leaves in winter.
Reproduction
Shrubby pōhuehue is dioecious, meaning that female flowers and male flowers grow on separate plants. The flowers are minute, on very short stalks and in small bunches. The wind, and nectar-seeking birds, geckos and skinks move pollen from male flowers to female flowers to fertilise them. The clusters of tiny flowers, less than 1 cm in diameter, are greenish to white or pinkish white. The species flowers and fruits from December to February. The small seeds are black, dull, not shiny, three-sided, and enclosed by persistent sepals which sometimes become white and fleshy. Birds spread the seeds. When a camp fire on Wellington’s south coast swept up a slope including several shrubby pōhuehue, some plants recovered thanks to the presence of a lignotuber. This is a rounded woody growth on the root crown which has evolved in some species growing in areas subject to fire or drought. It contains food reserves and a mass of buds which can sprout after a fire to produce new stems.
Uses
In 1868, Colenso reported that the small, swollen, sweet, juicy, female flowers of some species of Muehlenbeckia were a popular food with Māori children. Shrubby pōhuehue is popular as a garden plant. See it at Otari-Wilton’s Bush, also on the median strip on Jervois Quay below the City-to-Sea Bridge. It is planted in numerous places in Lower Hutt, including on Petone Foreshore, the Dowse Interchange and near Percy Scenic Reserve’s car park.
Where to find shrubby pōhuehue
Look for it on the Wairarapa’s east coast, coastal fringes of the Remutaka Range, and the margins of Wairarapa Moana, Lake Onoke and Parangarahu/Pencarrow Lakes (Druce, A. P. Plant list 134). Also look for it on Wellington’s south coast. Please photograph and give the authors the grid reference, number and condition of any plants you find.
Research project
Reasons are being sought for the lack of ‘seedling recruitment’ of shrubby pōhuehue. Is the reason related to climate change, failure of the species to flower, seed predation by rodents, or paucity of pollenators?
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, #2, 2018
February in the hills with Chris Horne
Muehlenbeckia australis agg, pōhuehue, puka, large-leaved muehlenbeckia
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the names
Muehlenbeckia is named after the Alsatian physician and botanist, Heinrich Gustav Muehlenbeck (1798-1845); australis means ‘southern’; ‘agg.’ indicates that the form of the species is variable. Pōhuehoe, or pōhue, are Te Reo names for several species of climbing or trailing plants; puka is a Te Reo name for several species with large leaves.
Distribution and habitat
Pōhuehue is native to New Zealand, but not endemic, because it also grows on Norfolk Island. It grows on Manawatāwhi/The Three Kings, Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Waipounamu/South Island, Rakiura/Stewart Island, and Rekohu/Chatham Islands. Look for pōhuehue in lowland to montane forests, often on their edges.
Growth habit
Pōhuehue, a member of the dock family, is a stout liane/climber up to 10 m tall with many branches which are more or less interlacing. The result, in the absence of a tree for it to climb, is a much-tangled mass on and near the ground. The main stem, up to 10 cm diameter, is round in cross-section, has grey bark and is often grooved. The dark-grey branchlets are slender, circular in cross-section, and often grooved.
The leaves are 2-8 cm long x 1-3 cm wide, thin, dark green above, paler green below, egg-shaped to oblong, often with a ‘waist’ or three lobes, and pointed tips. All forms may be on the same plant. The edges of the leaves are smooth and often wavy. Pōhuehue is sometimes deciduous so you may see it devoid of leaves in winter.
When it climbs a sapling, pōhuehue spirals up the host and may deform the host’s trunk, creating a helix-shaped groove on it. Unlike most other climbers, pōhuehue may spiral clockwise or anti-clockwise.
Pōhuehue’s foliage sometimes smothers the crowns of trees on the edges of regenerating forest and weighs down, or even snaps, their branches. It is therefore sometimes considered to be a weed. On the other hand, in scrambling over trees, it can reduce the effects of gales on the trees on bush edges and limit the drying out of a native plant community caused by gales, direct sunlight and by drought.
Reproduction
Pōhuehue is dioecious, meaning that female flowers and male flowers grow on separate plants. The numerous flowers are greenish, 4-5 mm in diameter, and about 5 mm long. They grow in clusters up to 15 cm long x 10 cm wide. Pōhuehue flowers and fruits from November to April, and sometimes as late as June. The seeds, about 3.5 mm long, are black, glossy, three-sided, and enclosed by persistent sepals which sometimes become white and fleshy. The wind spreads pollen from male plants to female plants and birds spread the seeds.
Uses
In 1868, Colenso reported that the swollen flowers were a popular food with Māori children. Try eating the sepals and sample their sweetness! The vines have been used to make hīnaki/fish traps.
Value for our flora and fauna
Pōhuehue is of fundamental importance to our ecology. It nurtures the regenerating vegetation which it clambers over, enabling those young trees, e.g. māhoe, wineberry, māpou, to penetrate it and eventually dominate it. It is often the only native species to survive following gross disturbances e.g. felling, fire or clearance. As it grows over a devastated site, seeds blown into it or dropped into it by birds are able to germinate. The resulting seedlings grow up through it, so it acts as a ‘nurse crop’ for a forest to replace the one that was destroyed. Birds, skinks and geckos eat the sweet-tasting sepals on female plants. Its presence enables many species of native insects, including butterflies and moths, to survive. The larvae of some moth species are leaf-rollers on pōhuehue, while those of other species make leaf mines in which they feed. (More information: Open Space. Issue 91. October 2016. QEII National Trust. Article by Brian Patrick, Wildlands Consultants.)
Where to find pōhuehue
Pōhuehue is abundant in Wellington city’s reserves, particularly on bush edges. It is also common in private gardens. Look for pōhuehue in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges, and in many other forests.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 2, March 2018
March in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Muehlenbeckia complexa agg, pōhuehue, pōhue, small-leaved pōhuehue, wire vine
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the names
Muehlenbeckia is named after the Alsatian physician and botanist, Heinrich Gustav Muehlenbeck (1798-1845); complexa comes from the Latin word meaning ‘woven together, intertwined’; ‘agg.’ indicates that the form of the species is variable. Pōhuehoe, or pōhue, are Te Reo names for several species of climbing or trailing plants.
The February In the Hills included a description of Muehlenbeckia australis, which is also called pōhuehue. To avoid confusion, this month’s article uses the compound name: pōhuehue/wire vine.
Distribution and habitat
Pōhuehue/wire vine is native to New Zealand. It is not endemic, because it also occurs in Australia and South America. It grows on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Waipounamu/South Island and Rakiura/Stewart Island. Look for the species in coastal, lowland and lower montane forests, especially on their edges, on open and rocky places, and on sandy areas near the coast.
Growth habit
Pōhuehue/wire vine is a much-branched liane/climber up to 6 m tall. It has many interlacing branches which may climb shrubs or small trees, or form tangled masses in the absence of support. The main stem is up to 5 cm diameter. The branchlets are very slender, circular in cross-section, hairy when young, and often finely ridged. They have dark to light reddish-brown bark.
The leaves are 5-20 mm long x 2-15 mm wide, dark green on top and paler, often whitish underneath. They vary in shape from egg-shaped, with the broad end attached to the flattened petioles/leaf stalks, to heart-shaped, with the notch at the base. The leaves range from leathery to thin. Several leaf forms occur on the same plant. The edges of the leaves are smooth, and usually not wavy. The petioles are up to 1 cm long. Plants may lose some or all leaves in winter.
Reproduction
Pōhuehue/wire vine is dioecious, meaning that female flowers and male flowers grow on separate plants. The wind and birds, geckos and skinks which feed on the nectar, move pollen from male flowers to female flowers to fertilise them. The clusters of white flowers are 1-2 cm long. The species flowers and fruits from November to February, and even as late as June. The seeds, about 2 mm x1.75 mm, are black, glossy, three-sided, and enclosed by persistent sepals which sometimes become white and fleshy. Birds spread the seeds.
Uses
In 1868, Colenso reported that the small, swollen, sweet, juicy, female flowers were a popular food with Māori children. Try eating the flowers in summer and early autumn to sample their sweetness! In 1896, F H Davey reported the species as “ … acclimatised in the Falmouth-Truro area of Cornwall” together with several other species of NZ plants.
Where to find pōhuehue/wire vine
The species is common in Wellington city’s coastal areas and rural hinterland, where it provides habitat for skinks, geckos, butterflies and moths. Look for it in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges, in many other ranges, and along our coasts, e.g. on sand dunes. As both a natural and restoration stabiliser of screes and older dunes, it forms compact springy clumps which can also suppress the spread of weeds.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 4(approve sites), May 2012
May in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Myoporum laetum, Ngaio
In my garden, one of NZ's fastest-growing trees, ngaio, lives up to its description, 'laetus', which means ‘happy’. Its glossy, dark olive-green, oil gland-dotted leaves c. 80 mm long by c. 40 mm wide, are the picture of health, and tūī think the bright mauve, fingernail-sized fruit are “just the berries”! But beware, all parts of the plant, especially the leaves, are to some degree poisonous to humans and stock. Tūī however, must be immune, because at this time of the year they spend all day a-chortle, gorging on the fruit and not succumbing to anything worse than melodious drunkenness.
Ngaio has dark brown, deeply- furrowed bark, and small clusters of white flowers c. 20 mm in diameter, each with a few tiny purple dots. The leaf buds are typically black-brown and sticky – in fact if they aren't, you've probably got an unwelcome Aussie look-alike instead, called boobialla.
Boobialla is a member of the Myoporum genus, its botanical name is Myoporum insulare. Boobialla is unwelcome in NZ, because unfortunately it readily hybridises with our NZ ngaio. Probably mistaken for NZ ngaio, it was propagated and planted extensively by many local nurseries and councils in the 1970s and 80s, particularly on the west coast, north of Wellington. As a result, it has become a pesky weed in Pukerua Bay and Queen Elizabeth Park, Paekākāriki. Remember - a good way to tell the difference between ngaio and boobialla is to look for those black-brown, sticky leaf buds on NZ ngaio.
A well-grown ngaio can reach to c. 10 m in height, with a rounded, spreading crown. Found in the Kermadecs, the Three Kings and the North, South and Chatham islands, it is usually coastal but can also grow in warm sites further inland. The only other Myoporum species in the NZ flora is a sprawling one with larger leaves, Myoporum rapense sub-species kermadecensis.
Like many other NZ native trees, ngaio is a handy source of rongoa (medication) in the hills. The toxin, ngaione, is in fact the medicine. It is concentrated in pale, see-through oil glands in ngaio’s leaves. Just as kawakawa leaves do, a hot poultice of shredded ngaio leaves will greatly hasten the healing of a septic wound. Trampers also appreciate that the juice of bruised ngaio leaves, when rubbed on exposed arms and legs, successfully deters sandflies and mosquitoes.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 9, October 2017
October in the hills with Chris Horne
Myrsine australis, māpou, māpau, matipou, red matipo
This endemic tree is one of the eleven New Zealand members of the widespread genus Myrsine. Some members of the genus are trees, others are shrubs.
Origin of the names
Myrsine comes from the Greek word for ‘myrtle bush’; australis comes from the Latin word for ‘southern’. In Te Reo the plant has several names in addition to those in the heading, The Ngapuhi iwi call it tīpau, and Chatham Islanders call it mataira.
Distribution and habitat
Look for māpou in lowland to montane forests, up to about 900 m elevation, especially near bush edges, on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Wai Pounamu/South Island, and Rakiura/Stewart Island. It can colonise bare ground, and thrive in the under-storey of dense forest. Introduced pest animals avoid browsing māpou.
Growth habit
Māpou is a shrub or tree up to about 8 m tall, with a trunk up to 20 cm diameter. The bark on the trunk is smooth and dark with corky spots. The bark on the younger branches and on branchlets is red* – hence the name ‘red matipo’. The leaves grow on rather stout stalks/petioles about 5 mm long. The leaves are yellow-green, about 3-6 cm long x 1.5-2.5 cm wide, leathery, with smooth edges. The leaf margins are usually strongly wavy*, and the leaf tips sometimes have a small notch. You will see red oil glands on young leaves. * Two useful features for identification.
Reproduction
Māpou’s tiny, yellowish flowers develop on woody twigs. Plants either bear female flowers or male flowers, not both. The berries, 2-3 mm in diameter, are black when mature. The flowering season is from January to April. The berries ripen from October to February. Often the flowers and fruit do not develop until many, or most, leaves have fallen. In May this year in Karori Sanctuary/Zealandia, and the contiguous Long Gully Bush Reserve, māpou trees shed many leaves. Tauhou/waxeye, tūī, pōpokotea/whitehead, korimako/bellbird, etc., eat the fruit, and spread the seeds and pollen. What plant can be confused with māpou? Learn to distinguish māpou from kōhūhū/Pittosporum tenuifolium whose leaves do not have red spots, whose leaf stalks are dark or black, and whose flowers are dark red, or nearly black.
Uses
Māori used branches of māpou for ceremonial purposes such as performing karakia or incantations during baptisms and funerals. To treat toothache they boiled māpou leaves then held the liquid in the mouth. Māori used māpou wood for the keels of waka and handles of adzes. They placed a pole of māpou in the ground at the east end of kumara plantings to represent Rongo, the guardian of planted foods. Māpou wood is not durable for use as fence posts but the strong, red-veined wood has been used to form veneers for cabinets and planks to make beams, joists, rafters and chairs, and handles for chisels, hammers and saws. Māpou is popular as a hedge plant because it can be trimmed, and is resistant to gales.
Where to find māpou around Wellington
Māpou is common in Wellington city’s reserves and in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 10, November 2017
November in the hills with Chris Horne
Myrsine salicina, Toro, Toro
This endemic tree is one of the eleven New Zealand members of the widespread genus Myrsine. Some members of the genus are trees, others are shrubs. In the October Tramper, toro’s relative, M. australis was described.
Origin of the names
Myrsine comes from the Greek word for ‘myrtle bush’; salicina comes from the Latin word salicinus meaning ‘willow-like’, referring to the shape of the leaves. Willows are in the Salix genus. The common name of the plant is toro. There is no English translation for toro.
Distribution and habitat
Look for toro in coastal to lower montane forest throughout Te Ika a Māui/North Island from Te Paki in the Far North district, and the north-western Te Wai Pounamu/South Island as far south as Hokitika. Toro may form a major part of the canopy along stream sides.
Growth habit
Toro is a tree up to about 10 m tall, with a trunk up to 60 cm diameter, and stout upright branches. The bark may be smooth or rough, and dark red to almost black. The leaves, mostly near the tips of the branchlets, are 7-18 cm long x 2-3 cm wide, thick, leathery, smooth, flexible, and often have maroon spots. They gradually widen from the lower end to the usually blunt upper end, although sometimes the end is pointed. They stick upwards, and when young are reddish-yellow. The leaf margins are smooth and flat or slightly curved downwards. The midrib is prominent on the underside of the leaf. The leaf stalks/petioles are stout, flattened, and up to 10 mm long. Look for a striking feature of toro - the way the first young leaves on the tips of the twigs are strongly curved backwards, pale, and scale-like*. Toro’s veins are hard to see, but on the underside of the leaves, the oil glands, a series of longitudinal streaks, are a useful feature to help you to identify toro.
- Māpou/M. australis - see October Tramper - shares this feature. It sometimes hybridises with toro.
Reproduction
Toro’s small flowers, 3-5 mm across, may be yellow, pink or purple. They appear clustered on woody twigs, mostly below the leaves. The flowering season is from August to January. The berries, which bear a single seed, are 8-9 mm long. They ripen from red to orange to bright purple, between September and May.
What other long-leaved native trees grow around Wellington?
While toro’s leaves lack teeth, those of rewarewa have many prominent teeth, and those of hīnau usually have numerous small teeth.
Uses
Thin pieces of toro’s wood are springy, so do not snap readily. Iwi in the Rotorua rohe/area used a straight piece of a branch of toro for the lowest and most important part of the handle of a rohe/hand net for catching small fish.
Where to find toro around Wellington
You can see toro in the Tararua Range. It is uncommon in the Remutaka and Aorangi ranges, and in Wellington’s reserves, e.g., Wellington Botanic Garden, Otari-Wilton’s Bush, and Johnston Hill Reserve. The paucity of toro may be because it is heavily browsed by possums
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 11, December 2022
December in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Nestegis cunninghamii, Maire, Black Maire
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
'Nestegis' means 'lacking shelter - has no perianth', from the Greek ne- (without) and stege (cover, roof); 'cunninghamii' refers to Allan Cunningham (1791-1839), an English botanist stationed in Australia who visited and collected plants in Aotearoa - or to his younger brother, Richard, who also collected plants here. The name 'black maire' refers to the tree's dark wood. Black maire belongs to the Oleaceae family, which also includes the olive tree, the ashes, lilacs, jasmines and privets.
Distribution and habitat
Black maire is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows in lowland forests from near North Cape on Te Ika a Māui / North Island to near Kaikoura on eastern Te Waipounamu / South Island. Nowhere is it common.
Growth habit
Black maire is a tree up to ca. 20 m tall with the trunk up to 1.5 m diameter. The grey-brown bark has vertical and horizontal fissures which result in raised cork-like rectangles. The young branchlets and leaves are hairy. The leaves, which have rather stout petioles / stalks, are in opposite pairs with thick texture and smooth edges. The base of the leaf stalk / petiole may be dark-coloured and swollen. Young leaves are very long and narrow: 10-30 cm x 0.5-1 cm, whereas adult leaves are 7.5-15 cm long x 2-4 cm wide. On the upper surface, the midrib is in a groove near the base of the leaf.
Reproduction
Black maire's flowers appear in spring. They comprise 8-12 tiny green or white flowers on a pubescent, unbranched flowering stem 10-25 mm long. Female flowers and male flowers may be on the same tree or on different trees. The fleshy fruit appear from December to April: they are 15-20 mm x 7-10 mm and orange-red to purple-black. Each fruit contains one purple-brown seed. The fruit are eaten by kererū and tūī, which spread the seeds.
Uses
Black maire wood is very hard and durable. It was widely used by Māori to make various implements and weapons, then later by Pākehā. The fruit was eaten by Māori.
Where can you find black maire?
In Wellington Botanic Garden there is a large specimen on Mamaku Way with an interpretation panel nearby. Look for black maire also in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, western Wellington hills and in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 1, February 2023
February in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Nestegis lanceolata, Maire, white maire
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
'Nestegis' means 'lacking shelter - has no perianth' coming from the Greek ne- (without) and stege (cover, roof); 'lanceolata' refers to the long, narrow leaves which taper at both ends. White maire belongs to the Oleaceae family which also includes the olive tree, the ashes, lilacs, jasmines and privets.
Distribution and habitat
White maire is endemic to New Zealand. It grows in lowland to lower montane forests on Te Ika a Māui / North Island and on Te Waipounamu / South Island where it is present in the Marlborough Sounds, but uncommon elsewhere. Black maire and white maire often grow together but white maire less so in frost-prone habitats.
Growth habit
White maire is a stout spreading tree up to ca. 20 m tall with a straight trunk up to 1 m diameter. The tree has a rather domed canopy. The bark is grey-brown to brown with a repeating furrowed pattern. The slender branchlets are pale and smooth. The smooth-edged leaves are thick, glossy above, paler below and in opposite pairs. Juvenile leaves, 100-410 × 4-10 mm, are narrower and more pointed than adult leaves, which are narrow to elliptic, 40-80(-100) × 10-30 mm including the 5-10 mm long stout petioles. On the upper surface, the midrib is almost level with the surface, unlike that on black maire which is sunken. Juvenile white maire and black maire can look very similar. However, the upper leaf surface of white maire leaves is glossy while that of black maire juveniles is dull. The adult branchlets of white maire tend to be glabrous whilst those of black maire are distinctly pubescent. Also, the leaf venation of white maire is not so clearly visible on the lower leaf surface as it is on black maire.
Reproduction
White maire’s flowers appear from October to November. Tiny green or yellow flowers, 8-10 (unusually up to 14), are found on a smooth, unbranched flowering stem 10-20 mm long. Female flowers and male flowers may be on the same tree or on different trees. The fleshy fruit appear from December to February: they are 10-18 mm long, oblong-ovoid to ovoid and pink, red, pinkish-red or orange. Each fruit contains one purple-brown seed. The fruit are eaten by kererū and tūī which spread the seeds.
Uses
White maire has been used for the same purposes as black maire: by Māori to make various implements and weapons, then later by Pākehā, both trees being among the hardest of native timbers. The fruit was eaten by Māori.
Where can you find white maire?
Look for white maire in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, East Harbour Regional Park, Mangaroa Valley, Te Mārua Bush, Kiripiti Scientific Reserve at Te Horo, and in the Akatarawa, Tararua and Remutaka ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 10, November 2011
November in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Olearia colensoi, Leatherwood
Trampers who have struggled through leatherwood in the ranges, know all too well how its thick, leathery, serrated leaves, and stout, hairy, interlacing branches hold you back, gouge your bare legs, and even rip your clothes. On the other hand, if in a storm you can't reach the relative safety of the forest below before nightfall, leatherwood may provide just enough shelter for you to camp in your sleeping bag and cover, or wrapped in your tent.
You will find this tough, rigid shrub, in montane to subalpine scrub just above the bushline, from Mt Hikurangi in the Raukumara Range, East Cape, all the way south to Rakiura/Stewart Island, where it grows at sea-level.
Leatherwood/tūpare is a New Zealand endemic member of the world's largest plant family, the daisies, numbering about 25,000 species worldwide. It is NZ's largest native plant family too: 32 genera and 290 species, including edelweiss (Leucogenes), which features on our club logo, our world-famous mountain daisies (Celmisias) and even our “vegetable sheep” (Raoulias).
The 8-20cm by 3-6cm grey-green leaves have densely hairy, white or buff undersides, probably to reduce moisture loss. Tiny tubular florets without petals are grouped in a rounded purplish- brown cluster 2-3 cm across, followed by seeds with “parachutes” like dandelions.
In A selection of poems, songs and short stories, Harold W Gretton included this song familiar to many trampers: (Air: Isle of Capri)
‘Twas on the top of Mount Alpha I met her Beneath the shade of a leatherwood tree. She had a razor-sharp slasher beside her. She said: Come down to Cone Hut with me ...
Look in our Tararua Song Book for the rest of this traditional tramping ballad, although near- impenetrable leatherwood is more likely to have you burst into curses and grab your slasher rather than burst into song.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 2, March 2020
March in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Olearia lacunosa, , lancewood tree daisy
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Olearia comes from the name of a German botanist, Johann Gottfried Ölschläger (1635-1711), his surname latinised to Olearius, which means “oil presser”; lacunosa comes from the Latin word “lacuna”, meaning a gap or cavity and describes the sunken interspaces formed by the lateral veins on the underside of the leaf. Lancewood tree daisy is a member of the daisy family, called the Asteraceae or Compositae.
Distribution and habitat
Lancewood tree daisy is endemic to New Zealand. It occurs on Te Ika a Māui/North Island from the Tararua Range southward, and on Te Waipounamu/South Island, mainly in the west, to South Westland. Look for it in subalpine forest or scrub up to the bush-line. Like its sibling of the same genus, leatherwood*, it is adapted to harsh mountain conditions. (* Tramper November 2011).
Growth habit
Lancewood tree daisy is a small tree up to 5 m tall, sometimes with many trunks. The orange-brown bark flakes in long, thin strips. The branchlets and undersides of the leaves are clad in rusty or tawny fuzzy hairs/tomentum. The very leathery narrow leaves are up to 17 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, dark green on the upper surface and have lightly curled margins. The midribs are stout and pale. Numerous, stout, prominent lateral veins at almost right angles to the margins give a pitted, minutely wrinkled appearance. The leaves grow in alternate pairs or terminal clusters.
Reproduction
Lancewood tree daisy flowers from November to February and sets seed from January to February. Female and male flower parts appear on the same composite flower, several of which comprise flat topped clusters. Each composite daisy flower has several white broad ray florets surrounding small yellow disc florets in the middle. The white of the flowers and their perfume attract pollinating insects. Each fruit, 2-3 mm long, contains one seed covered with hairs which facilitate its distribution by the wind.
Uses
We have been unable to find any references to uses for lancewood tree daisy, other than emergency shelter. If you hear of another use, please tell us.
Where can you find lancewood tree daisy?
Look for it in the Akatarawa Range on Maunganui, 708 m, and in the Tararua and Remutaka ranges in the subalpine zone.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 3, April 2020
April in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Olearia paniculata, Akiraho, Golden Akeake
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Olearia comes from the name of a German botanist, Johann Gottfried Ölschläger (1635-1711), his surname latinised to Olearius, which means ‘oil presser’; paniculata means ‘bearing panicles’, i.e., loose clusters of flowers’. Akiraho is a member of the world’s and Aotearoa’s largest plant family, the daisy family, called the Asteraceae or Compositae.
Distribution and habitat
Akiraho is endemic to New Zealand. It occurs on Te Ika a Māui/North Island from the Waikato River mouth and the Firth of Thames southwards and on Te Waipounamu/South Island as far south as Greymouth and Ōamaru. Look for it in lowland to lower montane shrublands and forest margins.
Growth habit
Akiraho is a shrub or small tree up to 6 m tall. The trunk is up to 40 cm diameter and may be up to almost 1 m diameter near the ground. It sometimes has several trunks. The brown bark hangs in strips. The branchlets are red-brown, grooved, angular and tomentose / finely hairy. The leaves are 3-10 cm long x 2-4 cm wide, leathery, hairless on top and with white to buff hairs / tomentum underneath. The smooth edges of the leaves may range from wavy to almost flat. The leaf stalks / petioles are up to 5 mm long.
Reproduction
Akiraho is unusual in that it flowers in autumn from March to May and sets seed in winter from April to July. The female and male flower parts appear on the same florets. The small whitish florets are solitary and occur in clusters, unlike most daisy flowers where the florets are bunched tightly together in the same flower. The small, dry fruit, 3.5 mm long x 2 mm wide, contains one seed covered with hairs which facilitate its distribution by the wind. Sample the lovely perfume of the white flowers, in evenings in autumn. The colour and perfume attract pollinating insects.
Uses
An oil extracted from akiraho has been studied to determine its composition and possible uses. Akiraho is widely grown as a hedge plant. If you hear of other actual uses, please tell us.
Where can you find akiraho / golden akeake?
Look for it in lowland to lower mountain shrubland and forest margins in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges and Wellington’s western hills.
Note
Akiraho is superficially similar to Olearia albida / tanguru which occurs from North Cape to south Waikato and Gisborne. Akiraho’s bark is brown and the side veins linking the mid-rib to the leaf margin are not visible. Tanguru’s bark is grey and the side veins are visible. Tanguru has sometimes been planted on Wellington’s road-side banks.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 2, March 2023
March in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Olearia rani var. colorata and Olearia rani var. rani, Heketara,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Names
'Olearia' is derived from the name of the German botanist Johann Gottfried Ölschläger (1635-1711), latinised to become ‘Olearius’; 'rani' is the plant name used for Olearia rani in 1834 by the Māori inhabitants of the Bay of Islands. Heketara is one of six names for the plant recorded in te reo Māori. Heketara is a member of the Compositae family – the daisies.
Distribution and habitat
Heketara is endemic to New Zealand. The variety ‘var. colorata’ grows in lowland forests and on forest margins from Waikato to northern Te Waipounamu / South Island. The variety ‘var. rani ‘ grows mostly in kauri forest from Te Paki in the Far North to northern Waikato and the Coromandel Peninsula.
Growth habit
Heketara is a shrub or small tree up to 8 m tall with a trunk up to 30 cm diameter. The brown bark peels off in strips. The branchlets are hairy. The pale green leaves which are 5-15 cm long and 3-7 cm wide are thick, shiny on top with irregularly toothed edges. The undersides are covered in white to buff hairs / tomentum. The stout leaf stalks / petioles are up to 4 cm long, also covered in hairs. The dark veins contrast with the light-coloured underside. From the mid-rib / primary vein the side / secondary veins approach the edge of the leaf then curve back to rejoin the mid-rib. This vein pattern is called 'reticulate'.
Reproduction
Heketara’s flowers appear from August to November and are often so numerous as to hide most of the leaves – a spectacular sight. Like other daisies, each heketara flower comprises many tiny florets, yellow in the centre surrounded by white, in large panicles / bunches. Each flower is up to 1.5 cm diameter. The small, dry fruit are 1 – 2 mm long, with a tuft of hairs up to 4 mm long, for wind dispersal. They appear from November to January and split and release the seeds after they decay.
Uses
Crushed heketara leaves, mixed with a fragrant moss, have been used to impart a pleasant odour to clothes, neck sachets and houses. The yellow pollen, produced in spring in big quantities, is valuable to beekeepers. The fine-grained, silvery wood has been used by cabinet makers.
Where can you find heketara?
Look for heketara in reserves on Wellington hills including Ōtari-Wilton's Bush and reserves in Tawa, and in East Harbour Regional Park, Mangaroa Valley and the Tararua and Remutaka ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 1, February 2020
February in the hills with Chris Horne & Michele Dickson
Olearia solandri, takupurenga, tree daisy
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Olearia comes from the name of a German botanist, Johann Gottfried Ölschläger (1635-1711). His surname, latinised to Olearius, means “oil presser”; solandri comes from Daniel Carl Solander (1733-1788), a pupil of Linnaeus, the Swedish botanist on Captain Cook’s first voyage. Takupurenga is a member of the world’s and Aotearoa’s largest plant family, the daisy family, called the Asteraceae or Compositae .
Distribution and habitat
Coastal tree daisy is endemic to New Zealand. It occurs on Te Ika a Māui/North Island from Te Paki southwards and on Te Waipounamu/South Island to southern Marlborough and western Nelson. Look for it near the coast in swampy or rocky sites near estuaries and on hill-sides up to about 500 m above sea level.
Growth habit
Coastal tree daisy is a shrub, or in sheltered sites, a small tree up to 4 m tall. In the latter case its trunk may be 20-30 cm diameter, with the bark hanging off in strips. It has rather stiff, spreading, square cross-section, sticky branchlets clad in yellowish hairs / tomentum. The leaves on young plants are up to 15 mm long and on adult plants 5-10 mm long on stalks / petioles about 1 mm long. The leaves grow in opposite pairs or clusters. They are slightly leathery, hairless on top and covered with yellowish hairs underneath. Their edges curl downwards.
Reproduction
Takupurenga flowers from February to May and sets seed from April to June. Female and male flower parts appear on the same composite flower. The leaves and flowers smell strongly of vanilla – savour the perfume! Appearing at the centre of clusters of leaves, the white composite flowers comprise many tiny disc florets in the middle, surrounded by ray florets, a typical feature of the daisy family. The white of the flowers and their perfume attract pollinating insects. Each fruit, 1-1.5 mm long, contains one seed, covered with hairs which facilitate its distribution by the wind.
Uses
We have been unable to find any references to uses for coastal tree daisy, except its value as foreground for photography. If you hear of another use, please tell us.
Where can you find coastal tree daisy?
Look for it in the Stable Gully native forest area in Wellington Botanic Garden, along Te Ara Piko / Pāuatahanui Inlet, on the banks of Waikanae Estuary and below about 500 m elevation in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
¹ The Te Reo Māori name for the plant, takupurenga, appeared in Native Plant Walk Notes prepared in February 2007 for use in Karori Sanctuary.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 11, December 2019
December in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Ozothamnus leptophyllus, Tauhinu, Cottonwood
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Ozothamnus leptophyllus (previously described as three species of the genus Cassinia), is a common local plant belonging to the daisy family, Compositae (Asteraceae). The name tauhinu is also used for another plant, Pomaderris amoena.
Origin of the botanical name
Ozothamnus comes from the Greek words ‘ozo’ – smelly and ‘thamnus’ – shrub, referring to the musky scent of the plants; leptophyllus means ‘with slender leaves’. Tauhinu is the Te Reo name and common name.
Distribution and habitat
Ozothamnus leptophyllus is endemic to Aotearoa/ NZ. It grows on Te Ika a Māui/North Island, Te Waipounamu/South Island, Rakiura/Stewart Island and Motu Maha/the Auckland Islands. Look for it in coastal to lower montane shrublands, grassland, dunes, open areas and disturbed land. Sun-loving, it also tolerates frost and salt.
Growth habit
Tauhinu is a fast-growing, grey-coloured, bushy shrub up to 2 m or more high. Its weedy appearance and ability to rapidly colonise open areas has resulted in the plant’s listing in some weed books. The small, leathery leaves are up to 4 mm x 2.5 mm, linear with slightly recurved margins and are spirally arranged on the branchlets. A white or greyish tomentum of matted soft hairs covers the undersides, as it does on the many dense, slender, rough-barked branchlets.
Reproduction
In early spring to summer a profusion of large, cap-shaped clusters of dense flower-heads develop at the tip of branches. The tiny, round, cream or pale gold daisy flowers are papery and have a subtle perfume. One-seeded fruits are small, dry, about 1 mm long with pappus hairs up to 4 mm long at one end, which grouped together in a mature seed-head give a fuzzy look. These are wind-dispersed, germinating easily on bare soils.
Uses
Planting tauhinu has been suggested as a way to stabilise sand dunes inland of foredunes. In laboratory analysis, some plant extracts have been found to have antiviral and antifungal activity.
Where to find Ozothamnus leptophyllus?
You can see tauhinu on Wellington coastal hills, grazed hills of Terawhiti/Makara, the Parangarahu Lakes area of East Harbour Regional Park, Ōruapouanui/ Baring Head, Cape Turakirae and on grazed hills along the Skyline Walkway. Also look for tauhinu on the Aorangi, Remutaka and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 8, September 2022
September in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Parsonsia heterophylla, Kaihua, Akakiore, Akakaikiore, Kaiwhiria, Kaikū, New Zealand jasmine
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Parsonsia is named after the Scottish doctor and natural historian, James Parsons (1705-1770); ‘heterophylla’ is derived from the Greek words ‘heteros’ and ‘phyllon’ meaning with differing leaves. The genus is a member of the Apocynaceae family, which in Aotearoa / New Zealand is represented by both ornamental and weedy plants e.g. moth plant, milkweed and periwinkle. Many species in the family are poisonous.
Distribution and habitat
New Zealand jasmine is endemic to Aotearoa. It is found in wet lowland to low montane forests from Manawatāwhi / Three Kings Island to Rakiura / Stewart Island.
Growth habit
New Zealand jasmine is a vine / soft-wooded climber which uses other plants for support by twining and winding itself up to the light. Thinner vines can twine about themselves forming ‘ropes’, while thick, older stems will dangle under their own weight. Vines can grow up to 10 m tall or more, with main stems up to 10 cm in diameter. The bark on older stems is smooth, but clad in soft hairs and reddish brown on branchlets. Leaves are opposite, on petioles / stalks up to 1-2 cm long. The juvenile and adult foliage differ widely in their colours and form, and both have a diverse range of shapes. Adult leaves are thick, dark green, slightly shiny above, paler below, 3-10 cm x 1-4 cm, and more likely to be oval. Juvenile leaves are thinner, paler, more likely to be long, narrow and often lobed.
Reproduction
Branched inflorescences are up to 10 cm long. Flowers are white, waxy and very fragrant, 6-10 mm long, with recurved lobes. The flowers develop into four-valved, pod-like, smooth capsules, 7-15 cm long, which when ripe split open to release wind-borne seeds, about 5 cm long, tufted by a ring of silken hairs which act as parachutes. Flowering is from September to March and fruiting is from December to April. Empty capsules may persist for several months longer. The scented, waxy flowers attract night-flying moths which pollinate them.
Uses
Parsonsia flowers were occasionally used by Māori for hunting - they fastened bunches to the perches of bird-traps as a lure. The vines were used to establish boundaries and fences, and for house frameworks.
Where can you find kaihua?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, most mature Wellington bush reserves, regional parks and in the Remutaka, Aorangi, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 8, September 2013
September in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Passiflora tetrandra, kōhia, NZ passion flower, NZ passion fruit
 Showing leaves, flowers, and at the top, a tendril Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
If you have seen woody, cobra-like coils, up to 14 cm in diameter, curling on the forest floor, and then climbing into the canopy to reach the light, you will have seen this endemic vine. Kōhia grows in lowland and montane forests, from near North Cape to Banks Peninsula. It spreads over the sun-lit canopy, reaching the tops of trees 30-40 m high, as reported in some forests on the Hauraki Plains.
Passiflora means “passion flower”; tetrandra refers to the flower’s four stamens.
Kōhia is a tendril-climber, like the sweet pea, cucumber and grapevine. It produces slender, delicate tendrils up to 10 cm long, from its stems. When first formed, a tendril is almost straight, and as it grows it slowly waves around. When it encounters the trunk or branch of a potential supporting plant, the tendril's tip wraps around it, thus securing support. Once the tip has attached to it, the remaining part of the tendril coils into two spirals, one left and the other right, which increase its elasticity, drawing the stem closer to the support. (Compare this mechanism with that used by bush lawyer, a ‘hook climber’ – see August 2012 article).
Kōhia’s coils are flexible trunks, round in cross-section, and its branchlets are very slender. The leaves are alternate, lance-shaped, 5-10 cm long by 2-3 cm wide, leathery, dark green and glossy above, and paler below, with slightly wavy edges.
Kōhia is dioecious, so has male and female flowers on separate plants. Between October and March, the yellowish-green female flowers produce pear-shaped, bright orange fruit, 2-3 cm in diameter, which contain wrinkled seeds in a red pulp. We trampers find the fruit disappointingly dry, but birds, possums and rats seek the pulp, so we sometimes see the torn remains of kōhia fruit strewn on the forest floor.
Use
Like so many of our indigenous plants, kōhia had numerous uses in pre-European times. Expert at making lashings out of vines, Māori used kōhia to bind fence posts, platforms and the frames of whare. Because kōhia wood burns very slowly, they used partially hollowed-out sections of its sturdy stems for carrying fire when travelling. They also made a scented body oil by crushing, steaming and pressing kōhia seeds to extract the oil which they then perfumed with the leaves of aromatic plants. Used medicinally, it was applied to soothe sores and wounds
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 9, October 2022
October in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Passiflora tetrandra, Kōhia, NZ passion fruit, NZ passion flower
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Passiflora meaning ‘passion flower’ is derived from Church Latin – 'passio' meaning 'suffering' and 'flos' meaning 'flower'; 'tetrandra', meaning 'with four stamens' is derived from the Greek words 'tetra', meaning 'four' and 'andros’, meaning 'man'. The genus is a member of the Passifloraceae family, which in Aotearoa / New Zealand is also represented by the introduced tasty black passionfruit and the weedy vines / lianes banana passionfruit and blue passion flower.
Distribution and habitat
Kōhia (one of twelve recorded te reo names) is endemic to Aotearoa / New Zealand. It is found on the margins of lowland forests from near North Cape in Te Ika a Māui / North Island and in Te Waipounamu / South Island to as far south as Banks Peninsula and Haast.
Growth habit
Kōhia is a soft-wooded, hairless vine / liane growing up to 20 m tall with circular, flexible branches and very flexible branchlets. The stem can be over 10 cm diameter, often forming tortuous coils on the forest floor. To climb other plants, kōhia uses very slender, curled tendrils up to 10 cm long, which wrap around part of a supporting plant. The leaves are pointed, 5-10 x 2-3 cm, alternate on the branches and are on petioles / stalks up to 2 cm long. The leaves are smooth-edged, leathery, dark green and glossy above and paler below. The leaf margins may be wavy.
Reproduction
Female and male flowers are small and insignificant and appear on separate plants. The flower parts – sepals and petals - are yellowish green, with the male flowers displaying numerous long white filaments / stalks of the pollen-bearing parts. Flowering and fruiting is from October to March. The orange fruit is more or less spherical, 2.5 cm in diameter. The black seeds are embedded in a red pulp on reddish arils / stalks.
Uses
Māori: used kōhia vines when building fences, house frameworks and platforms; used the slow-burning main stem to carry fire from place to place; crushed, steamed and pressed the seeds to obtain oil, called hinu kōhia, to which they added leaves from other aromatic plants to create perfumed, soothing body oils; used the oil on sores and wounds; and used the gum which exudes from a cut stem to make face paint and chewing gum. The fruit is edible but not tasty. Birds eat the fruit as do possums, rats and mice. Look for the opened skin of fallen fruit on tracks when you are tramping.
Where can you find kōhia?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush and most mature Wellington bush reserves, regional parks and in the Remutaka, Aorangi, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 3(approve sites), April 2012
April in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Pennantia corymbosa, Kaikōmako,
Kaikōmako’s small, black, fleshy fruit, which appear in autumn, are a food source for bellbirds, also known as kōmako, or korimako. The first part of the botanical name is derived from the name of a Scottish botanist, T. Pennant, and the second part relates to the way the flowers around the margins of the multi-flowered inflorescence open first.
Kaikōmako, a canopy tree that grows up to c. 12 m tall, with a trunk up to c. 50 cm diameter, is endemic to New Zealand. It is found in coastal and lowland-forest margins to 600 m a.s.l., from near Kaitaia southwards in the North Island, and throughout the South Island. Juvenile kaikōmako have slender, flexible, closely interlacing, zigzag branchlets. This “divaricating” habit is a feature of c.13% of New Zealand’s woody plant species, a high proportion compared with the floras of other countries. The tiny leaves, 7-15 x 5-10 mm, on these juvenile plants, are shaped like a duck’s foot.
Once the plant becomes a few metres high, the divaricating branching is replaced by a more open branching form, bearing leaves c. 5 x 3 cm, that usually have lobes toward the apex. In spring, clusters of small, fragrant flowers appear on the ends of the branchlets. The flowers do not produce nectar, but night-flying moths take the pollen, as do flies during the day.
A wide variety of Māori legends exists about how Māui stole fire from Māhuika, who in her rage at him concealed fire, and the secrets of fire-making in the timbers of kaikōmako, māhoe and patē trees. Māori learnt that kaikōmako is a very hard wood. To start making a fire, they used a stick of dead, sound, dry kaikōmako and rubbed it vigorously back and forth in a piece of dead, dry māhoe, or patē, both soft woods.
One of the McDonald series of early NZ movies showed a Māori couple in Te Urewera, c.1920, one using a bow-drill with a kaikōmako spindle rotated vigorously in a dry log, while the other blew gently as the first signs of smoke arose from the log, then added dry grass as the tinder.
Were you one of those TTC club members at the memorable meeting on 21 October 2008, when Steven Kohler, a member of the Wellington Tramping and Mountaineering Club, showed us his video of fire-making without matches or a lighter, then demonstrated the method outside the clubrooms on the car park? He first wielded his kaikōmako stick hard and fast, to produce a smouldering groove in the māhoe. Then he swiftly gouged out the hot, smoking, carbonised wood, placed it in a 15-cm diameter woven flax basket already half full with scales from mamaku tree fern. With the basket on a metre-long string, he whirled it around furiously while we all waited, agog! Soon, to our amazement and delight, smoke began to pour from the basket, then, as a thrilling finale, the basket burst into flame. Māori must have arrived at this ingenious fire- making method, by experimenting over many generations. It shows how dependent some early humans were on the combination of a hard wood and a soft wood, to enable them to cook and keep warm.
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, no 11(approve sites), December 2012, page 20
December in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Phormium tenax, Harakeke, Flax
After Captain Cook’s first voyage botanists named harakeke, Phormium, from the Greek word for basket, referring to its Māori use, and tenax, meaning tough. Both species are endemic to New Zealand. The leaves of both species grow in the form of a fan, from the centre of which grows the flowering stem, (kōrari). The lower surfaces of the leaves are fused together.
Harakeke is swamp flax, often seen in dense stands such as Taupō Mire west of SH1, north of Plimmerton, and on intermittently flooded land. e.g. as low river terraces. It occurs in the North, South, Stewart, Chatham and Auckland islands. Harakeke leaves are 1 – 3 m by 5 – 12 cm, stiffly erect for most of their length. The stem is 5 – 6 m tall, with dull red flowers followed by erect, plump, three-sided, shiny brown seed capsules that are usually less than 10 cm long by 2 cm wide.
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Phormium cookianum, wharariki, mountain flax
Wharariki is the flax we see in many habitats from coastal cliffs to mountain slopes, in the North, South and Stewart islands. Look for it on cliffs on the Wellington coastline, and above the bushline in the Tararua Range. Wharariki leaves are usually less than 2 m long, and inclined to droop. The stem is up to 2 m tall, with mainly greenish flowers often with tones of orange or yellow. These are followed by green, dangling, twisted, seed capsules usually more than 10 cm long, and almost circular in cross-section.
Hybridism
Plant identification is not always straightforward. If you see a flax plant whose description appears to be a mixture of the measurements and other characteristics of the two species described above, perhaps you are looking at a hybrid between them.
Cultural uses
All parts of harakeke were used by Māori – it was critically important to them for clothing, cordage, and medicinal (rongoa) purposes. They named more than sixty forms of harakeke, according to leaf shape, colour and quality of the muka (fibre). The leaf blades are used for making kete (baskets), mats and for the woven patterns in tukutuku panels. The muka, extracted from the inside of the leaves by scraping off their green covering, then dried, is used to make strong ropes, fishing nets and clothing. Rene Orchiston collected many of these varieties of flax from the wild, and grew them at her property near Gisborne. A selection of these was propagated and planted in the grounds of Victoria University, and in the Botanic Garden.
The area around Foxton used to be the centre of a thriving flax industry. By 1830, flax fibre was being shipped to Britain, and for many decades the industry produced twine, rope and fibre for wool bales, but the advent of yellow-leaf disease, and alternative fibres such as jute led to the end of the industry.
The orange gum from the leaf bases was used as an antiseptic wound dressing. There were many other (rongoa) uses. The buoyant, dried stems were used for flotation.
We trampers can use strips of the leaves of either flax species as a substitute for string or rope, perhaps to repair a boot which is falling apart, or even to make a tourniquet. The bases of the leaves can be used as splints. Tūī, korimako and starlings seek flax nectar, getting the yellow pollen on their heads, then transferring it to other flowers. Check the next flax flower you see – if there is no insect inside, suck the flower to sample the sweet nectar, if the birds have left you any.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 11, December 2017
December in the hills with Chris Horne
Phyllocladus alpinus agg, mountain toatoa, mountain celery pine
Photo: Rob Lucas
The article in the September 2015 Tramper described Phyllocladus trichomanoides/tānekaha, the largest of the three species in the Phyllocladus genus, then briefly described the other two members of this genus of podocarps.
Origin of the names
Phyllocladus comes from the Greek words ‘phyllon’ meaning ‘leaf’, and ‘klados’ meaning ‘young shoot or branch’, hence ‘leaf-like branches’; alpinus comes from the Latin word meaning ‘belonging to the Alps’; toatoa comes from the plant’s Te Reo name; mountain celery pine refers to the appearance of the cladodes. The suffix ‘agg.’ indicates that mountain toatoa has more than one form.
Distribution and habitat
Mountain toatoa, an endemic small tree, grows in montane forest and subalpine shrubland, usually on rocky sites. On Te Ika a Māui/North Island it occurs from Coromandel southwards to the Tararua Range, but is absent from Mt Taranaki. On Te Waipounamu/South Island, it occurs in the north and in Westland. It is absent from Rakiura/Stewart Island.
Growth habit
True leaves, some linear, up to 15 mm long, and others small and scale-like, occur on seedlings and young plants. These leaves are deciduous, being replaced by what look like fan-shaped leaves, but which are actually flattened branchlets called cladodes or phylloclades that function as leaves. Hence the genus name Phyllocladus, which means ‘leaf-like branches’, making the members of this genus unique among our endemic conifers.
Mountain toatoa/mountain celery pine is the smallest and most cold-tolerant in the genus. It is a shrub or small tree up to 12 m tall, with a short trunk up to 40 cm diameter and smooth bark.
There are two forms of mountain toatoa:
The common form, up to 9 m tall, grows in high-altitude forest and sub-alpine shrublands. Another form up to 12 m tall, grows at middle altitudes in the North Island. In the northern South Island and in Westland it is a common small tree in lowland forests.
Both forms can form patches if their lower branches touch the ground and develop roots. Each season, the small true leaves are replaced by a cluster of cladodes attached along the twigs. They are thick, leathery, often with a greyish waxy tinge and 5-25 mm long x 3-12 mm wide. Their edges may have prominent lobes, with or without serrations. The tips may be rounded or pointed.
Reproduction
The two sexes are in separate flowers on the same plant. The bright red pollen cones, 4-6 mm long, are usually in clusters of 2-7 at the end of the stems. The small seed cones, red and fleshy when ripe, are attached to the edges or stalks of the cladodes. They have 1-5 seeds c. 2.5 mm long, with a white aril at the base. Pollen is released in spring and the seed is ripe from late summer to autumn.
Uses
Mountain toatoa wood has been used to make a brown or red dye.
Where to find the species near Wellington
Look for mountain toatoa in subalpine forest in the Tararua Range. There are planted specimens in Otari-Wilton’s Bush, and in Percy Scenic Reserve, Petone.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 8, September 2015
September in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Phyllocladus trichomanoides, Tānekaha, Celery pine
We focus on tānekaha, the largest of the three species in the Phyllocladus genus, then briefly describe the other two members of the genus.
When you see tānekaha, you will realise that its common name, ‘celery pine’, is an apt description. What look like oddly-shaped leaves are, in fact, flattened branchlets called phylloclades, which function as leaves. Hence the name Phyllocladus, which means leaf-like branches, making the members of this genus unique among our endemic conifers.
 Tānekaha phylloclades Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Tānekaha grows in lowland forest up to 800 m elevation; in the North Island, from North Cape to Whanganui and Waipukurau, and in the South Island, in northern Marlborough, Nelson and Buller. It is a graceful, pyramidal tree up to 20 m tall, with a trunk up to 1 m diameter, with smooth, grey-brown bark, usually covered with lichens. Often it has no branches for the first 6 m, above which slender branches radiate from the trunk horizontally.
A fascinating feature is that seedling tānekaha do have real leaves which are up to 20 mm long, reddish-brown, narrow, parallel-sided, and deciduous. These are replaced by the phylloclades, which are diamond-shaped to fan-shaped, lobed, 15-25 x 10-15 mm, and arranged in two rows.
Reproduction
Tānekaha is monoecious, so both female and male cones appear on the same tree. Clustered at the tips of the branches, the stalked male pollen cones (c. 10 mm long), dark purple when young and crimson when mature, produce pollen which the wind carries to the blue-purple female seed cones, (c. 3 mm diameter), developing at the margins of the phylloclades. Each cone will produce a seed.
Uses
To dye harakeke / flax mats and korowai / cloaks, red-brown, Māori pulped the bark, added water, threw in hot rocks to boil the mixture, then soaked the items in it. They used the tannin-rich bark to tan nets, and as a rongoā, to control dysentery. In the 19th century, the bark was exported to Germany to make red and pink dyes. Spinners still use it for dyeing, producing a wide range of colours, depending on the mordant used. The strong, durable wood has had many uses, including threshing machines, mine props, bridges, fish hooks, and, because the wood is so flexible, walking sticks and fishing rods.
Related Phyllocladus species
Phyllocladus toatoa, toatoa, grows from sea level to 600 m elevation, from Te Paki south to Awakino in the west, and Lake Waikaremoana in the east. It is a tree up to 15 m tall, with a trunk up to 60 cm diameter, and smooth, grey bark. The wedge-shaped, leathery phylloclades, 40-60 x 20-40 mm, are sea-green when young and bronze-coloured when mature. This species can be monoecious or dioecious.
Phyllocladus alpinus, mountain toatoa, grows in the North Island in subalpine forest and scrub, from 900-1600 m elevation, usually on or near the upper margins of beech forest, from Coromandel Peninsula southwards, including the Tararua Range, (except Mt Taranaki). In the South Island, in the west, it grows down to sea level. A shrub, or tree up to 9 m tall, it has a trunk up to 40 cm diameter, with smooth, grey bark. Unlike the two species above, the phylloclades, 5-25 x 3-12 mm, are attached to ordinary twigs, and usually greyish. This species is monoecious.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 4, May 2023
May in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Piper excelsum subsp. excelsum, Kawakawa, pepper tree
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Names
'Piper' is derived from the Greek word 'peperi’ for pepper; 'excelsum' is derived from the Latin 'excelsus' meaning lofty, high. The genus has previously been described as ‘Macropiper’. Kawakawa is a member of the pepper family - the Piperaceae. It is related to the kavakava tree used in the Pacific to produce kava - the ritual intoxicating drink, and to Piper nigrum, the peppercorns of which give us common pepper.
Distribution and habitat
Kawakawa is endemic to Aotearoa / New Zealand. It grows in lowland forests on Te Ika a Maui North Island up to about 500 m. altitude. On Te Waipounamu / South Island it grows in coastal areas as far south as Banks Peninsula, on the West Coast as far south as Ōkarito and on Rekohu / Chatham Islands.
Growth habit
Kawakawa is an aromatic, hairless shrub or tree up to 6 m or more tall with zigzag, jointed branches which are swollen at the nodes. The trunk can be up to 6 cm diameter and has smooth dark bark. A single kawakawa may have several trunks. The leaf arrangement is usually alternate, with stalks / petioles 1-4 cm long that have a scale-like stipule at the base. The thin, dark to yellowish-green, heart-shaped, peppery-tasting leaves are 5-10 x 6-12 cm, with smooth edges and are slightly leathery, with prominent veins. The leaves provide food for the larvae of the nocturnal native kawakawa moth – Cleoria scriptaria. The caterpillars feed at night and then hide during the day somewhere on the plant or in leaf litter on the forest floor.
Reproduction
Kawakawa’s flowers and fruit can appear in any season in the North Island; in the South Island flowering occurs in spring and summer and fruiting in summer and autumn. The tiny female and male flowers, which are grouped very closely on slender, erect, candle-like inflorescences up to 11 cm long, appear on separate plants. The female fruit, a coalescence of the tiny flowers and orange when ripe, are distributed by birds.
Uses
Māori use branches of kawakawa to lift the tapu on new meeting houses and for blessing new waka, and burn the wet leaves and branches to protect kūmara crops from damage by insects. If you have toothache, chew a kawakawa leaf. To make a tasty tea, crush a few leaves into a teapot, add boiling water and allow the mixture to steep a while. Eat the ripe orange fruit but spit out the seeds. Cover a wound with a kawakawa leaf. Burn leaves on your campfire to deter mosquitoes and sand-flies.
Where can you find kawakawa?
Look for it in reserves on Wellington hills including Ōtari-Wilton's Bush and reserves in Tawa, in East Harbour Regional Park and in the Tararua and Remutaka ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 4, May 2020
May in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Pittosporum eugenioides, tarata, lemonwood
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Pittosporum is derived from the Greek word for pitch (tar), referring to the sticky pulp around the seeds, and the word “spora” for seed; eugenioides means resembling Eugenia, a species of myrtle. Lemonwood is a member of the Pittosporaceae family, found mostly in Australia, with about 20 species in New Zealand.
Distribution and habitat
Tarata is endemic to New Zealand. It occurs on Te Ika a Māui/North Island and on Te Waipounamu/South Island. Look for it in regenerating and mature forest in coastal to montane situations.
Growth habit
Tarata is an evergreen tree up to 12 m tall with spreading branches and a trunk up to 60 cm diameter with pale-grey, smooth or slightly rough bark. The leaves are wavy-edged, elliptic-oblong in shape, alternate, 5-15 cm long x 2.5-4 cm wide, with smooth edges and slender stalks 1-2 cm long. They feel slightly leathery, are mildly glossy and are coloured pale green with paler blotches sometimes evident. The midrib is a pale lemon. The leaves have a lemon perfume when crushed. During winter, leaf buds are protected by overlapping bud scales.
Reproduction
Flowering is from October to December with the fruits ripening in October to January of the following year. Some plants have only female flower parts, while some have both male and female on the same flowers. The flowers are small, tubular, pale yellow to yellow, in dense terminal compound umbels / clusters. The petals of each flower are narrow-oblong, 5-7 mm long. Sweet, heavy scents of the flowers attract insects for pollination. Flowers ripen into 2-valved or sometimes 3-valved, pointed, ovoid capsules, 5-6 mm long. These split open, exposing a long-lasting thin papery layer around the black seeds which are covered in a dark yellow viscid pulp. Birds spread the seeds because they stick to them.
Uses
Medicinal uses include using the resinous, balsamic gum extracted from the bark as a masticatory, a chewing gum for bad breath, and as an antiseptic on wounds and sores. Leaves have been chewed into a paste to cure raw places on a saddle-sore horse. Ornamental uses include the resins and crushed leaves being used in recipes for scents. Māori extracted the scented resins / gums from mainly the bark and carried them in sachets around the neck or made them into body ornaments. They also mixed the resins or flowers with fat to anoint their bodies. The strong, tough wood has been used to make handles for tools and for trumpets, when gummed together with tarata glue. Tarata is a popular garden tree and large hedge plant.
Where can you find tarata?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, Huntleigh Park, East Harbour Regional Park and in the Akatarawa, Tararua and Remutaka ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 92, # 5,June 2020
June in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Pittosporum tenuifolium, kōhūhū, black matipo
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Pittosporum is derived from the Greek word “pitta” for pitch (tar), referring to the sticky pulp around the seeds, and “spora” for seed; tenuifolium refers to the leaves being thin. Kōhūhū is a member of the Pittosporaceae family, found mostly in Australia, with about twenty species in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Distribution and habitat
Kōhūhū is endemic to New Zealand. It is common from near North Cape southwards in coastal to lower montane forests on Te Ika a Māui/North Island and on Te Waipounamu/South Island, except on the West Coast. Kōhūhū is often abundant as a pioneer in the early stages of forest regrowth, growing up through dense growths of bracken, for example.
Growth habit
Kōhūhū is a variable evergreen tree up to about 8 m tall with a trunk 30 cm-40 cm in diameter with grey or brown bark, sometimes fissured. The black or dark red branchlets and the young leaves may have short soft hairs. The leaf buds are scaly. The leaves, which vary in shape throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, are on short petioles / stalks. They are alternate, variable in shape, ranging from 1 cm-7 cm x 0.5 cm–2 cm, with smooth, wavy edges. They are thin and leathery, pale green on top, paler underneath and their edges may be wavy. Enjoy the smell of a leaf when you crush it.
Reproduction
Kōhūhū’s fragrant flowers are attached singly along the twigs. Each flower has five petals which curve backwards strongly and are very dark red or almost black. They appear from October to November, with the fruits ripening from January to March the following year. The fragrance of the tubular flowers at night attracts pollinating insects. The capsules / fruit are about 12 mm in diameter, and are wrinkled when mature. They split in three to reveal the black seeds set in a sticky fluid. Birds seek the seeds, and those which stick to the birds’ bills or feet are distributed elsewhere.
Uses
Tohunga used branches of kōhūhū when officiating at birth ceremonies, lifting tapu or welcoming people onto marae. Māori made perfumes from the gum by cutting the bark, and made dyes from the leaves. The timber is very strong but not durable in the ground. The light green leaves with wavy margins plus the dark bark make kōhūhū a popular garden plant.
Where can you find kōhūhū?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, Wellington Botanic Garden Centennial Reserve, East Harbour Regional Park and in the Akatarawa, Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 88, no 11, December 2016
December in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Pneumatopteris pennigera, Pākau, Gully fern
It is wise to learn the botanical name of this fern, or its Māori name, rather than its common name, so as to avoid confusing its name with gully tree fern, Cyathea cunninghamii. Pneumatopteris means ‘breathing fern’; ‘pteris’ is the Greek word for fern and 'pennigera' means feathery. Some members of the genus have breathing pores at the base of the segments (pinnae).
Distribution and habitat
Pākau is common in damp, shaded, lowland to montane forests on The Three Kings, North, South and Rekohu/Chatham islands. In the southern South Island it occurs mainly in coastal areas. It is absent from Rakiura/Stewart Island. It also occurs in Australia, thus it is native to New Zealand, but not endemic.
 Pneumatopteris pennigera, pākau Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Growth habit
Pākau is often a striking feature in damp, shaded, gullies. Although regarded as a ground fern, it often develops a slender trunk up to about 1 metre tall. This is why some people mistake it for a young tree fern. The stipes (stalks) of pākau’s fronds are 5-25 cm long, pale brown and scaly at the base. The fronds are 30-150 cm long x 10-40 cm wide, with dark green, thin segments (pinnae) which occur in 15-30 pairs, the longest 6-20 cm long x 1.5-3 cm wide, the shortest 1-6 cm long. The segments (pinnae), which taper to points, are sessile, i.e., they attach directly to the rachis, so they do not have stalks. The rachis is dark brown and grooved.
Reproduction
Rounded sori develop in two lines, one on each side of the midrib of each segment (pinna). When the sori are ripe, they open, and the spores are distributed by the wind to locations where they may develop into fernlets and later mature adults. See our description of the fern life-cycle in the December 2015 Tramper, on page 11.
Uses
Rongoā: The scraped roots have been used as poultices to ‘draw’ boils.
Some Wellington sites
Pākau is abundant along parts of Karori Sanctuary’s Fault-line Track, south of its junction with the Turbine Track. It also occurs in Otari-Wilton’s Bush(approve sites), in native forest areas in Wellington’s Botanic Garden(approve sites), and other native bush areas in the city. You may find that it makes an attractive subject for a photograph, on its own, or among other plants in a shaded gully.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 90, # 11, December 2018
December in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Poa cita agg, wī, silver tussock
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the names
Poa comes from the Greek word for meadow-grass or fodder; cita comes from the Latin word meaning to excite, arouse. In silver tussock it refers to the rapid growth of this species of grass, and its ability to colonise recently denuded ground. The suffix ‘agg.’, meaning aggregate, indicates that the species has various forms, depending on where you see it. Note: the Te Reo name, wī, is also applied to some species of Juncus/rushes. Silver tussock gets its name because the leaves are often shining. The word “tussock” is applied to those tufted grasses which hold water among dead leaves at the base.
Distribution
Poa cita is endemic to Aotearoa/NZ. It grows throughout Te Ika a Māui/North Island, but is rare from Raglan to Manawatu, except on Mt. Taranaki. On Te Waipounamu/South Island it is widespread, and also on Rakiura/Stewart Island, Rekohu/Chatham Island and Rangitāhua/Kermadec Islands. Habitat Look for the widespread silver tussock on relatively fertile soils in lowland to subalpine areas, in grassland, pasture, open scrub and forest, and on coastal cliffs.
Growth habit
Poa cita is member of the Poaceae family, the grasses. It forms a rather dense, shining tussock, 30 cm - 100 cm, sometimes hanging two metres down steep banks. The smooth leaves are light brownish-green, sometimes with a blue tinge. The leaf-blades are 20 - 60 cm long x 1.0 - 2.5 mm wide, folded or flat, and leathery. Dead leaves persist attached to the plant.
Reproduction
As with most grasses, the flowers/florets contain male and female parts, each enclosed within chaffy, scale-like bracts. Collectively the florets are grouped into spikelets/inflorescences, all making up the feathery flowering head. The male parts hang well out to catch the wind for pollination. The female part develops into a tiny grain containing the seed, fused within it. Flowering occurs from early summer, with grains ripening over the next few weeks depending on conditions. The whole culm/flowering stem of silver tussock may be 10 cm - 70 cm. It has slender branches.
Uses
Māori treated burns with ashes of burnt wī, and used a decoction of wī as an internal rongoā/medication for arthritis and rheumatism. They used wī for thatching and as a floor covering. Early Pākehā settlers cut silver tussocks off at the base, then stuffed them into sacks to make mattresses. To build cob cottages, they cut the grass into short lengths, put them into a shallow pit filled with wet clay which they, or horses, trampled on to mix the two components. They formed the clay/tussock mixture into bricks and left them to dry. These were used to build often large homesteads with several rooms, all warm and dry, and durable for decades.
Where to find Poa cita, wī, silver tussock
Look for it along Hawkins Hill Road, where it thrives on wind-swept road edges, on Wellington’s south and west coasts, and on the Remutaka, Aorangi and Tararua ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 1, February 2015
February in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Aotearoa's indigenous conifers
Conifers are plants whose reproductive organs are called cones. In the forthcoming monthly issues of The Tramper, we shall be describing some of Aotearoa's indigenous conifers: kahikatea, rimu, mountain toatoa, tōtara, mataī and miro.
Our ancient forests are priceless heritage
TTC members tramp in bush in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges, in Otari-Wilton's Bush, other reserves in the Wellington region, and beyond, sometimes among majestic, towering, indigenous conifer species that are hundreds of years old, emergent above the canopy. An example is kahikatea, which can reach to 60 m in height, and exceed 1,000 years of age.
Fossil pollen research has established that kahikatea's direct ancestors were flourishing in Gondwanaland in the Jurassic period, up to c. 175 million years ago. In John Salmon's The native trees of Aotearoa, he describes the unbroken ancestry, the priceless heritage of our Aotearoa indigenous conifer forests. He went on to write that they contain more species with ancient lineages than there are in old forests elsewhere, and are therefore among the most ancient forests in the world.
Aotearoa's indigenous conifers
Our indigenous conifers are classified as gymnosperms, which are non-flowering, seed-producing plants. The name is derived from Greek: 'gymno' = naked, and 'sperm' = seed, because they reproduce by means of seeds that are naked, i.e., not enclosed. Therefore they differ from angiosperms, which are flowering plants whose seeds are enclosed inside ovaries, or inside mature fruit, e.g., apple.
Our three families of indigenous Aotearoa conifers are organised into ten genera and twenty-one species. The families are:
- Podocarpaceae (18 species). 'Podocarp' is from Greek: 'podos' (foot) and 'karpos' (fruit).
- Araucariaceae (1 species), and
- Cupressaceae (2 species).
There are no members of Araucariaceae or Cupressaceae families in the Wellington region. All our indigenous conifer species are endemic and evergreen. Nineteen of them are trees, e.g., rimu, kauri, mountain cedar, etc. Two of them are low shrubs, e.g., pygmy pine, (rarely more than 30 cm high!).
Wellington region's indigenous conifers
Keep an eye out for the following members of the podocarp family which have been recorded in the Tararua (T), Remutaka (R), and Aorangi (A), ranges, and western Wellington (W) hills:
| Dacrycarpus dacrydioides | kahikatea | T R A W |
| Dacrydium cupressinum | rimu | T R A W |
| Halocarpus biformis | pink pine | T |
| Phyllocladus alpinus agg.* | mountain toatoa | T |
| Phyllocladus toatoa | toatoa | T |
| Podocarpus cunninghamii | thin-barked tōtara | T R A |
| P. cunninghamii x P. nivalis | a hybrid tōtara | T R |
| P. cunninghamii x P. totara | a hybrid tōtara | T |
| Podocarpus totara | tōtara | T R A W |
| Prumnopitys ferruginea | miro | T R A W |
| Prumnopitys taxifolia | mataī | T R A W |
Aotearoa's indigenous conifers
| Phyllocladus trichomanoides | tānekaha |
Next month we shall get back to our usual pattern of focussing on a single plant. The subject will be kahikatea, the first podocarp in the list above
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 7, no 4, May 2015
May in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Podocarpus totara, Tōtara, lowland tōtara
 Two mature totara receptacles with seeds on top Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Tōtara is an evergreen, endemic NZ conifer member of the podocarp family (see February article). It grows in lowland, montane, and lower subalpine forests, up to c. 600 m above sea level, in the North, South and Rakiura/Stewart islands. There is a huge specimen in Homewood Cres, Karori. Slow-growing and hardy, tōtara may live for over 1000 years.
They may be 40 m or more tall, with bushy, spreading crowns, and trunks to 4 m diameter, with thick, furrowed, red-brown bark that peels off in long strips. Gnarled roots may spread out above ground. The mid-green adult leaves, 15-30 x 3-4 mm, radiating stiffly at c. 90° around the twigs, taper to sharply pointed tips. The juvenile leaves are c. 20 x 1-2 mm.
Reproduction
Tōtara are dioecious: the female trees have female cones and the male trees have male cones. In late spring, the male trees shed pollen from their cones, 10-15 x 3-4 mm, held singly, or clustered, on branchlets. In autumn, female tōtara produce seed cones on top of juicy bases called receptacles. The seeds are fertilised by wind-dispersed pollen. The receptacles, which change gradually from green to red, mature in autumn, are often mistaken for fruit, by people and birds. Birds eat the receptacles, together with the seeds perched on top. In rural areas you often see young tōtara growing along fence-lines, because birds have perched on the fences, voiding the seeds there.
Uses
Māori collected the mature receptacles in large quantities, relishing this sweet, juicy addition to their autumn diet. The timber is easily worked, and resists rot. Using toki / adzes and strategically-placed fires, Māori could hollow out from one giant tōtara a waka taua / war canoe capable of holding up to 100 paddlers. They also used tōtara for frames for whare, for many types of carvings and kōauau / flutes. The outer bark was used for torches and as splints for fractured limbs, and the inner bark for roofing, and containers for water and food. To make fire, they sometimes rubbed a pointed stick of tōtara on a slab of dead māhoe. Some TTC members saw this method on 21.10.2008, (see Tramper October 2008).
Pākeha felled vast tracts of tōtara to build houses, bridges, wharves, telephone poles and railway sleepers. Nowadays, it is used mainly for furniture and carving. The bark can be processed to produce green and brown dyes to colour wool for spinning. Although tōtara is a good firewood, trampers beware! In campfires it is known to emit many sparks. Tōtara make handsome, drought-resistant specimen trees when planted on open sites.
Several closely-related podocarps, also called tōtara, are snow tōtara / Podocarpus nivalis, needle-leaved tōtara / P. acutifolius, and Hall's tōtara / P. cunninghamii, also known as mountain tōtara or thin-barked tōtara. Look for them on your tramps - you will probably spot the resemblance
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 6, July 2015
July in the hills with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Prumnopitys ferruginea, Miro, Brown pine
Miro is an endemic member of the Prumnopitys genus. Its ancestors began to appear in the Lower Cretaceous era, over 100 million years ago. It grows in lowland forests in the North, South and Rakiura/Stewart islands, up to 1,000 m elevation, often in the same ecosystems as rimu, and on similar soils.
Its botanical name is derived from Prumno = plum; pitys = coniferous tree; ferruginea = rust-coloured. Both miro and mataī used to be in the Podocarpus genus, but taxonomic research showed that miro and mataī differ significantly from the other podocarps. As a result, the Prumnopitys genus was set up to accommodate these two species. However, recent DNA analysis indicates that miro is not so closely related to mataī after all. Eventually it will be moved into a new genus, yet to be set up and named.
Miro trees can grow for up to 800 years, with trunks up to 25 m tall and 1.25 m in diameter. The dark grey bark falls off in rounded flakes, making the trunk look hammer-marked, but less obviously so than in mataī. Good places to see fine miro are Upper Hutt's Harcourt Park, Waiorongomai and Mt Ruapehu. On your tramps you may have noticed that young miro, up to 6-8 m high, have a graceful, weeping form.
 Miro foliage and ripe ‘fruit’ Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Miro’s bright, light-green juvenile leaves are up to 30 x 2-3 mm, curving, tapering and narrowly pointed. The adult leaves are 15 x 2-3 mm, dark green above, paler green below, and arranged in two opposite rows in one plane, more or less at right angles to the branchlets. They are distinctly shorter and less sharply pointed than the juvenile leaves, with a prominent mid-vein, and margins that curve downwards.
Reproduction
Miro are dioecious: female trees have female 'cones'; male trees have male 'cones'. The slim, upright, male 'cones', 12-15 x 3-4 mm, borne on specialised branchlets, turn yellow as their pollen ripens and is carried away by wind and/or bees. Unlike mataī, miro's male cones do not occur every year, and are not usually numerous.
The female cones are also borne on specialised branchlets and bear ovules containing the female sexcells which after fertilisation by pollen, develop into seeds. Each seed is enclosed within a fleshy 'fruit', up to 20 mm diameter, like a small, green, unripe plum. (See pages 96-98, NZ's Native Trees. Dawson and Lucas. 2011). They take about a year to mature, eventually turning bright red-purple.
Uses
Māori ate the fruit raw. It is rather sweet, but with a slight tang and smell, similar to turpentine. Māori squeezed an aromatic substance from the fruit to make a perfume, and an insecticide. They extracted gum from the bark to place on wounds to stop bleeding, and to heal ulcers. They also used the bark to make water containers. Bushmen made an antiseptic from an infusion of the bark.
Wool can be dyed maroon, mushroom or brown with an extract from the bark, depending on the mordant used. Miro timber, hard, durable and straight-grained, was popular for house frames, weather-boards and floors. It is now used to make furniture and for carving and wood-turning.
Kererū and tūī love the ripe fruit. They often fly long distances to gorge themselves on it, later depositing the seeds in ecosystems nearby or further afield. The role of kererū and tūī in indigenous ecosystem succession is extremely important.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 87, no 5, June 2015
June in the hills with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Prumnopitys taxifolia, Mataī, Black pine
Mataī is an endemic NZ conifer member of the podocarp family, described in the February 2015 article. It grows in lowland forests up to c. 500 m above sea level in the North, South and Rakiura/Stewart islands. There are some fine mataī in Te Mārua Bush, Upper Hutt. Its botanical name was derived from Prumno = plum; pitys = coniferous tree; taxifolia = leaves like the yew tree, a member of the Taxus genus.
Fossil pollen grains of mataī have been dated from as far back as the Pliocene, seven million years ago. Mataī trees, which may live for up to 1000 years, grow to 25-33 m tall, with buttressed trunks up to 2.35 m diameter and broad crowns. Their distinctive grey-brown, bark falls off in thick, rounded flakes, making the trunks look ‘hammer-marked’. Peel off a flake to see the beautiful wine-red colour underneath.
Young mataī have a divaricating form. Their slender stems are wide-spreading, zigzagging and intertangled. This juvenile form may last for up to 60 years, until one stem dominates and develops into a tall tree, its typically erect branching a useful feature for trampers to distinguish it from many other large tree species.
The juvenile leaves are brownish-green, often dead-looking, 5-10 x 1-2 mm and sharply pointed. Some parts of the branchlets appear to lack leaves, but look closely and you will see they have tiny, brown, scale-like leaves hugging the branchlets. Adult leaves, 10-15 x 1-2 mm, are parallel-sided, straight, or very slightly curved, ending in two shoulders with a sharp point in the middle. They are dark green above, glaucous (bluish-white) below, and usually arranged at irregular intervals around the twigs.
 Mataī foliage and unripe ‘fruit’ Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Reproduction
You will by now have realised that 'cones' on podocarps are completely different from cones on pine trees. Mataī are usually dioecious, i.e., female trees have female 'cones', and male trees have male 'cones'.
The slender male 'cones', 12-15 x 3-4 mm, attached along specialised branchlets, turn yellow as their pollen grains ripen and are carried away by wind and/or bees.
The female 'cones' are also borne on specialised branchlets, and bear ovules containing the female sexcells, which, after fertilisation by pollen, develop into seeds. These become enclosed inside fleshy tissue, just as the seeds of grapes are, c. 5-9 mm in diameter.
This structure means they can be classified as 'fruit', (see page 101, NZ's Native Trees, Dawson and Lucas. 2011). These 'fruit' need up to eighteen months to ripen to purple-black, when they are relished by kererū and kākā. Mataī has mast seeding years of heavy seed production.
Uses
Māori ate the tiny fleshy 'fruit' from female mataī. They used the wood for carving, including musical instruments, e.g., kōauau, pūtōrino and pōrutu flutes.
Pākeha bushmen made an antiseptic from an infusion of the bark, and mataī beer from a fluid obtained by drilling into the heartwood.
Although loggers called all conifers, including our podocarps, ‘soft woods', mataī timber is very hard, dent-resistant, strong and durable, practical for flooring in schools, churches and dance floors. It was used to make furniture, bowls, tabletops, door steps, window sills and weather-boards, so is now recycled for these uses. The bark was used to tan leather and to dye wool a brown or mushroom colour. Freshly cut mataī wood has a distinctive scent
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 7, August 2021
August in the hills with Michele Dickson and Chris Horne
Pseudopanax arboreus, whauwhaupaku, Five-finger
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Pseudopanax’ is derived from the Greek words ‘pseudo’ meaning ‘false’, ‘pan’ meaning ‘all’, and ’akos’ meaning ‘remedy’, referring to the medicinal plant ‘ginseng’, which is also in this genus; ‘arboreus’ comes from the Latin word ‘arborescere’ meaning ‘to become a tree’. The Panax genus is a member of the Araliaceae family, commonly called ‘araliads’, with members common in southeast Asia. In Aotearoa the family is represented by twenty-one native species.
Distribution and habitat
P. arboreus is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island and Te Waipounamu / South Island, though rare in Central Otago. Look for it in coastal to montane moist broadleaf forest, secondary forest, stream sides and forest margins.
Growth habit
P. arboreus is a small tree up to 8 m tall and a trunk 30 cm in diameter with smooth bark and stout, brittle, spreading branches. It can be epiphytic on other trees and on tree-fern trunks. A feature found in many plants of this family is palmate, compound leaves comprising distinct leaflets spreading from a single point at the top of the leaf stalk/petiole. Five-finger usually has five leaflets / ‘fingers’, sometimes six or seven, from a stalk/petiole 15-20 cm long, each with a stalk/petiolule about 3.5 cm long. The glossy leaflets are 10-20 cm x 4-7 cm, obovate to oblong, slightly leathery, and have coarsely serrate edges. Vein reticulations are visible on both sides of leaflets. Possums relish the petioles, leaving detached leaflets on the forest floor.
Reproduction
Female flowers and male flowers grow on separate plants. The flowers are arranged in compound umbels, arising from single points which develop at the end of stems. The first/primary stalks of the umbel are up to 10 cm long, numbering 8-20, and the secondary numbering 15-20. Each terminal umbel has 15-20 sweet-scented, white to pink-flushed flowers, up to 5 mm diameter. The dark fruits are 5-8 cm diameter, fleshy and somewhat compressed. Each contains 2-3 wrinkled seeds, 3-6 mm long. Flowering is in June to August and fruiting August to February. Birds eat the fruit then spread the seeds.
Uses
Māori used the bark green to make skids for hauling canoes and sometimes to make small water vessels, gum from the plant to prevent leakage in joints of water vessels and wood for fashioning a flute taken from a tree growing in exposed conditions. Khaki dyes for wool have been made from ripe berries using an alum mordant, and horses eat the bark.
Where can you find five-finger?
Look for this species in Wellington reserves and patches of bush, and in the Akatarawa, Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 8, September 2021
September in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Pseudopanax crassifolius, horoeka, Lancewood
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Pseudopanax’ is derived from the Greek words ‘pseudo’ meaning ‘false’, ‘pan’ meaning ‘all’, and ’akos’ meaning ‘remedy’, referring to the medicinal plant ‘ginseng’, which is also in this genus; ‘crassifolius’ comes from the Latin words ‘crassus’ meaning ‘thick’ and ‘folium’ meaning ‘leaf’. The Pseudopanax genus is a member of the Araliaceae family, commonly called ‘araliads’, with members common in southeast Asia. In Aotearoa the family is represented by twenty-one native species.
Distribution and habitat
P. crassifolius is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rakiura / Stewart Island. Look for lancewood in shrubland and in lowland to lower montane forest up to ca. 750 m.
Growth habit
Lancewood is an outstanding example of a species with dramatically different juvenile, intermediate and adult forms. Early botanists named them as separate species! It becomes a tree up to 15 m tall with a trunk up to 50 cm diameter. The leaves of seedlings vary from dark green to mottled white and brown. In the long-lasting juvenile form, the stem is unbranched, with very thick, rigid, leathery, linear leaves 1 cm wide and 15-60 cm long which hang down. The edges of these leaves have small sharp teeth. Between 15 and 20 years of age, when the tree is 4-5 m tall, it begins to change completely. The trunk of young trees has mottled, rope-like bark with horizontal lines of corky lenticels through which gases pass. The juvenile trunk begins to develop branches and the head of the tree becomes rounded. The leaves of the adult tree are 10–20 cm long and 2-3 cm wide, thick and tough, pointing upwards, and sometimes without teeth. The mid-rib and underside are pale.
Reproduction
Lancewood’s small greenish-yellow, bisexual flowers, ca. 4 mm in diameter, grow in clusters on the ends of branchlets. Birds and bees pollinate the flowers. The fruit, 5 mm diameter, dark purple to black, form in clusters / umbels, from January to April. They are eaten by birds, which spread the seeds.
Uses
Māori used the stem of young trees, sharpened to a point then hardened in a fire to make a lance to spear kererū. They made tokotoko / walking sticks by tying a loop ca. 1.5 m up a living sapling, then waiting for the sapling to become sturdy enough to cut it off at ground level – as seen by CH in Warawara Forest, Far North in 1989. Early Pākehā settlers used the strong midribs of young leaves as bootlaces and for repairing bridles and harnesses and used the flexible trunks as stock and horsewhips.
Where can you find horoeka / lancewood?
Look for it in Wellington reserves and patches of bush, and in the Akatarawa, Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
Browsing by moa
This has been proposed as a reason for the great variability of the leaves. The toughness, length and sharp teeth of juvenile leaves would’ve made them difficult to swallow.
Hybridisation
This occurs as a result of Pseudopanax lessonii / coastal five-finger / houpara, a related species from Northland / Te Tai Tokerau, being planted in gardens in our region. The result is a confusing variety of leaf forms – some rather like juvenile lancewood, others rather like Pseudopanax arboreus - our local five-finger. See Tramper, August 2021.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 9(approve sites), October 2012
October in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
 Pseudowintera axillaris Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Pseudowintera axillaris and Pseudowintera colorata, both called horopito by Māori.
These two species are members of an endemic NZ genus, belonging to a family that appeared in the NZ fossil record over 65 million years ago, and found mainly in southeast Asia and South America. The family is the least specialised of all flowering plant families, having many ancient features of the earliest-evolved flowering plants.
The leaves of both species have smooth margins, and are coated on the back with a natural wax, which gives a pale, bluish appearance. Chew a leaf of either plant to sample the peppery taste, which deters browsing pests such as deer, goats or possums. You may have noted that one or other of these species often grows en masse in native forest from which the palatable species have been eaten out by pest animals.
Pseudowintera axillaris, Horopito
Pseudowintera axillaris, lowland horopito. This tree occurs in lowland and lower montane forests from Kaitaia to Buller. It can grow to 8 m tall, has dark bark, and rather leathery, dark-green leaves, 6-10 x 3-6 cm, that are glossy above and bluish-green below. They are mildly peppery to taste. The tiny, greenish-yellow flowers which appear be- tween September and December, produce small, red, or occasionally black, fruit.
Pseudowintera colorata, Horopito
 Pseudowintera colorata Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
Pseudowintera colorata, mountain horopito is a shrub or tree occurring in lowland to higher montane forest, from Te Paki in Northland, southwards through the North Island, and in the South and Stewart islands. It grows to 2 m, rarely to 8 m, and also has dark bark. Its leathery leaves range from 2-8 x 1-3 cm, are dull yellowish-green and red-blotched above, and blue-green below. Beware - they are very peppery to taste. Like its relative above, the flowers are greenish yellow. They appear between November and March, and produce small fruit ranging from dark red to black.
If you have tramped from Baked Beans Bend, Korokoro Stream, up to Belmont Trig, the last community you pass through before the trig is dominated by mountain horopito. Next time you are there, marvel at the unusual colours of the leaves in the canopy, near the gale-swept summit.
In the past, steeping the leaves of one of the horopito species, then applying the solution to the skin, was believed to cure some skin complaints. When you are far from a dentist, chewing a leaf of one of the horopito species is a distraction from toothache. A small sprig of a horopito may add zest to your billy of stew, and these days, some restaurants use mountain horopito as a peppery flavouring in spicy dishes.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 89, # 3, April 2017
April in the hills with Chris Horne
Pyrrosia eleagnifolia, Ota, Leather-leaf fern
Pyrrosia, derived from the Greek word for ‘flame-coloured’, refers to the fawn-coloured hairs on the undersides of the fronds of this endemic fern – eleagnifolia, also of Greek origin, means ‘with leaves like the olive tree’.
Distribution and habitat
Leather-leaf fern grows on the North and South islands, and on the Kermadec, Three Kings, Rakiura/Stewart and Rekohu/Chatham islands. This tough, adaptable fern can survive in very dry conditions. It is common throughout the country, ranging from exposed coastal areas to montane forests. Look for it growing on the ground, climbing over rocks, or as an epiphyte on native and introduced trees.
 Ota with fertile and sterile fronds Photo: JEREMY ROLFE |
Rhizome
Ota’s rhizome, 1-2 mm in diameter, is long-creeping, branching and scaly.
Growth habit
Ota’s appearance differs markedly from that of many other ferns. The thick, fleshy, leathery, blunt-ended, tongue-like fronds are leaf-like, dark green, with scattered hairs on top, and dense, fawn-coloured hairs underneath. The thickness of the fronds and their hairy undersides make them drought-resistant. Their shape is extremely variable, and their margins are smooth. They are attached to the rhizome by winged stipes/stalks up to 2 cm long. The fronds have two forms:
- fertile – elongated, 4-12 cm long x 1-2 cm wide;
- sterile – shorter, egg-shaped, or almost round, up to 7 cm long x 2 cm wide.
Reproduction
The fertile fronds bear dome-like, round or oval sori on their undersides in two or more rows either side of the midrib and away from the margins. When the sori ripen and open, they release the yellow spores, which are spread by the wind to germinate on the ground, on rocks, or on tree trunks.
Uses
Other than providing an eye-catching subject for your photographs, there are no recorded uses for ota in either pre- or post-European times.
Where to look for ota
Keep an eye out for this common fern wherever you go tramping, up to c.1000 m above sea level. A fine specimen of it is growing on a large ngaio* on the berm outside 106 Upland Road, Kelburn. With its rhizome clinging to the bark, ota almost surrounds the trunk and climbs all four main limbs to a height of c. 5 m above the ground. This example is one of several you can see on Upland Road, some on native trees, others on exotic trees.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 93, # 9, October 2021
October in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Raukaua anomalus, whaupaku,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Raukaua’, the current preferred generic name is from ‘raukaua’, the Māori name for one of the species in this genus; ‘anomalus’ comes from the Greek word ‘anomalos’ meaning ‘irregular’ or ‘abnormal’ because it is so unlike its Pseudopanax relatives. This species has previously been described in the closely related genera Neopanax, Nothopanax, Panax and Pseudopanax, all members of the Araliaceae family, commonly called ‘araliads’ or ‘ivy family’, with members common in southeast Asia. In Aotearoa the family is represented by twenty-one native species.
Distribution and habitat
R. anomalus is endemic to Aotearoa. It grows on: Te Ika a Māui / North Island, except the Far North / Te Tai Tokerau; Te Waipounamu / South Island; and Rakiura / Stewart Island. Look for it in lowland to montane forest margins, scrub and shrubland from sea level to lower altitudes. It is often localised, not common, usually not found in large numbers.
Growth habit
R. anomalus is a bushy shrub up to 3 m tall with stout, grey, divaricating branches, more densely so when growing in the open. The branchlets have stiff black bristles. The leaves are alternate. Juvenile leaves differ from the adult, being 3-foliate with petioles / leaf stalks up to 2.5 cm. Adult leaves are single with short, petioles / leaf stalks up to 5 mm long. A few 3-foliate leaves may still be present on adult plants. The petioles / leaf stalks are winged / flattened with a joint between the petiole and blade. The leaf blade / lamina is bright green at first, becoming dark green, sub-coriaceous and more or less orbicular in shape. Some leaves show a faint suggestion of three lobes. The leaf edges have shallow marginal teeth, rounded, terminating in soft points. Leaf-blade veins are indistinct.
Reproduction
Clusters of a few tiny, greenish or fawn, bisexual flowers develop in the leaf axils. The fruit are fleshy, 4-5 mm wide, sideways compressed, green, ripening to either dark brown, blotched reddish-purple, or pale cream. The two persistent, recurved, female flower parts may be seen at the tip of the seeds. Flowering is from December to February, and fruiting from February to April. Birds eat the fruit and distribute the seeds.
Uses
We have not found any records of uses of Raukaua anomalus. Please tell us if you know of one.
Where can you find R. anomalus?
Look for this species in south and western Wellington coastal areas and adjacent hills, Skyline Walkway, Te Ahumairangi / Tinakori Hill, Huntleigh Park Reserve, Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Mangaroa Valley and the Akatarawa, Tararua and Remutaka ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 6(approve sites), July 2012
July in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Rhopalostylis sapida, Nīkau
Trampers may remember the lush groves of nīkau at the West Coast end of the Heaphy Track, a warm, moist site favoured by the species. Out of approximately 2,000 palm species world-wide, nīkau has the twin distinctions of being NZ's only palm species, and the southernmost palm species in the world. On the NZ mainland it is naturally occurring as far south as Whataroa in the west and Banks Peninsula in the east, but Pitt Island in the Chathams is its southernmost and easternmost outpost at 44° south. The only other member of the genus, Rhopalostylis baueri, is found in the Kermadec Islands.
Nīkau's green, approx. 25 cm diameter trunk, ringed with regular scars where the leaves have fallen off, does not taper, and almost never has branches. Because of its smoothness it does not offer a suitable surface for epiphytes to cling to. Reaching to 10 m in height after (estimated) 200 years growth, nīkau have been recorded at well over 20 m high. The stiff, finely-divided leaves are up to 3 m long, with leaflets up to 1 m long. The broad green leaf bases wrap around the top of the trunk, forming a distinctive, bulbous, tulip-shape, out of which, like an upside-down, inside-out, half-furled brolly, the crown of leaves arises in a cluster.
Nīkau have an unmistakable profile, so much so, that even the stately Flora of NZ Volume II refers to nīkau as having a “feather-duster” shape - you get the picture? Nīkau are slow-growing, long-lived trees, taking something like 50 years to develop any trunk at all, and at least 70 years to flower. In summer, like a pink octopus, the inflorescence of hundreds of male and female flowers bursts out of a large, enveloping bract, to lure insects and birds to its nectar. About a year later, the bright scarlet, fingernail-sized fruit, thickly strung on thin stalks like strings of beads, invite kererū and kākā to gorge themselves, thereby helping to ensure the distribution of this handsome endemic palm.
In earlier times the pliable, naturally water-shedding leaves were much used by Māori for thatch- ing whare, mat-making, and leggings for travelling through dense undergrowth, etc. The outer portion of the trunk was used to make storage containers and pots in which to hold water. Often admired by early European artists, nīkau appear in many well-known paintings. Long may they continue to adorn and enrich our landscapes.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 8(approve sites), September 2011
September in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Ripogonum scandens, Kareao, Supplejack
There must be very few trampers who haven't cursed supplejack sometime on a tramp! In many a lowland forest, well below the bushline, you have probably tripped over its conspicuous, black, thumb-thick, entangled stems. Most of these stems reach right up into the canopy.
In the canopy their leaves, tiny greenish flowers and bright red fruit attractive to birds, hang on thin stems, up to 1 m long. Down on the forest floor, you sometimes see knee-high supplejack seedlings, with a few leaves on thin, dark stems. These grow into supple, succulent, brown stems with asparagus-like tips that move about in the wind. When they touch another plant, e.g. a sapling or tree, the cells on the side of the supplejack stem opposite those making contact with the potential support plant, are stimulated to elongate. This response enables the supplejack to begin winding around the support plant, climbing towards the sunlight.
People have found numerous uses for supplejack stems, - rope-ladders for climbing cliffs, hīnaki (eel-traps), lashings to bind tree-fern trunks for whare walls, food-storage baskets, cradles and walking-frames for young children, stretchers for injured trampers, and yes, even emergency pack frames! Medicinal uses for the sap include wound treatment. Elsdon Best, in 1905-07, reported that, “The water which exudes freely from a broken young shoot is applied to wounds”.
Supplejack, a New Zealand endemic, twining climber, is a member of a small genus with relatives in Australia and New Guinea. It occurs in the North, South, Stewart, and Chatham islands, usu- ally in valley bottoms and other moist sites — often with nikau — if the climate is not too cold. The ‘u’ in the name is pronounced as in ‘supple’.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 7(approve sites), August 2012
August in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Rubus cissoides, Tātarāmoa, Bush lawyer
As you tramp through the bush, you can almost hear bush lawyer saying, “Hang on a minute mate,” as its multitude of backward-facing, curved prickles snag your clothing, or your bare skin, and perhaps remove your hat, or all these actions simultaneously. Colonists, noting the sheer tenacity of the plant, called it ‘bush lawyer’. Whether this was a compliment to the legal profession, or not, the name has literally clung to the plant.
New Zealand has five species of Rubus, the Latin word for ‘bramble’. They are endemic members of the rose family, a cosmopolitan family of about 1000 species. The name cissoides means like Cissus, an unrelated plant.
Rubus cissoides grows on the Three Kings, North, South and Rakiura / Stewart islands, in lowland and montane forests. It is a liane (vine) up to 15 m or more tall. The main stems are stout, up to 10 cm, or even 17 cm, in diameter, and have many branches, which are usually ‘unarmed’, i.e. they lack prickles. The leaves comprise five, or occasionally three, sharply-toothed leaflets. The branchlets, stalks, and the midribs on the underside of each leaflet are all armed with the prickles that stop trampers in their tracks.
Just as bush lawyer’s prickles grab your clothing or skin, so they enable the vine to cling to adjacent plants and to climb right into the forest canopy. If there is no plant for the young tātarāmoa to climb, it will sprawl across the forest floor until it finds one. In spring, in well-lit sites, bush lawyer produces sprays (panicles) of white, rose-like flowers with petals 5 – 8 mm long. Between November and April, the fruit, like a tiny raspberry 5 – 10 mm long, orange-red and fleshy, is an important source of food for birds and hungry trampers.
People with rheumatism used to sit over a vapour bath made by heating stones, then throwing water and tātarāmoa leaves over them. Infusions of tātarāmoa leaves have been used as a beverage and as a remedy for toothache, coughs and sore throats, stomach-ache and internal parasites.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 3, April 2023
April in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Schefflera digitata Patē, patatē, seven-finger
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Names
'Schefflera' is derived from the name of the botanist J. C. Scheffler, author of Flora of Danzig, published 1764 - 1766; 'digitata' is derived from the Latin words ‘digitus’ for finger and ‘digitatus’, meaning divided into finger-like parts, referring to the palmate leaf. Patē or patatē are the te reo Māori names. The Schefflera genus is a member of the Araliaceae family, commonly called ‘araliads’, with members common in southeast Asia. In New Zealand the family is represented by twenty-one native species.
Distribution and habitat
Patē is endemic to New Zealand. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rakiura / Stewart Island. Look for it in lowland to montane forest, sites along streams and forest margins.
Growth habit
Patē is a small tree to 8 m tall. The slightly ridged trunk has prominent cork-like lenticels with a greenish bark. The branches are stout. The palmate, compound leaves, each divided into 7 - 9 leaflets, have reddish petioles / stalks up to 25 cm long, and the petiolules / leaflet stalks are up to 2 cm long. The leaflets are thin with finely serrated edges. The shape is ovate to wedge-shaped, pointed at the tip and gradually and evenly narrowing to the base. The terminal leaflet is up to 20 cm long, the others decreasing in size towards the petiole. Juvenile leaflets are sometimes irregularly lobed, especially in the north of the North Island. Patē is browsed by goats and possums.
Reproduction
Patē flowers and fruits from February to March. Small cream to green flowers, up to 7 mm diameter, appear in tiny short-stalked umbels along drooping branches of many-branched palmate bunches. The spreading branches may be up to 35 cm long. Pate may have male and female separate flowers on separate plants or on some plants the flowers are initially male and much later become female, with the female parts developing after the anthers and the petals have fallen. The fruit are subglobose, ranging in colour from white to purple-flecked to dark violet, fleshy when ripe and up to 3.5 mm in diameter. The fruits contain about 7 – 10 seeds, which are dispersed when the fruits are eaten by birds.
Uses
The dark juice of berries has been used as a dye and writing ink. The wood was used to obtain fire by friction and used as a base wood. An adze socket and a teka / dart made of patē have been found among museum artefacts. The sap and leaves have been used on skin sores and ringworm.
Where can you find patē?
Look for patē / seven-finger in reserves on Wellington hills including Ōtari-Wilton's Bush and reserves in Tawa, in East Harbour Regional Park, Mangaroa Valley and in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 91, # 10, November 2019
November in the hills with Chris Horne and Michele Dickson
Solanum laciniatum, poroporo, bullibulli
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical name
Solanum, the Latin word for nightshade, refers to the comforting or narcotic effects of some members of the genus; laciniatum comes from the Latin word ‘lacinia’ meaning ‘fringed, cut into narrow lobes, slashed’. Poroporo is a member of the potato, tomato and tamarillo family, the Solanaceae.
Distribution and habitat
Poroporo is common on Te Ika a Māui/North Island from Auckland southwards and on Te Waipounamu/South Island as far south as Dunedin, on Rakiura/Stewart Island and Rekohu/ Chatham Island. Look for poroporo near the coast, in lowland forests and on forest margins. Poroporo is native to New Zealand. It also occurs in eastern Australia and New Guinea.
Growth habit
Poroporo is a soft-wooded, widely branching shrub or small tree about 3 m tall. The young stems are black or purplish. The leaves are alternate on the branches, thin, 15 cm-30 cm long or more, dark green, with one, two or three long, pointed lobes, or sometimes simply spear-shaped without lobes.
Reproduction
Poroporo flowers and fruits most of the year. The flowers are up to 5 cm diameter, bright purple. The petals have rounded ends and ruffled margins. The fruit are egg-shaped, 20 mm-25 mm long. They droop and ripen to yellowish. The seeds are 2.2 mm-2.5 mm long.
Uses
Māori used infusions of the leaves to combat itchy skin. Māori and the Pākehā settlers ate the fruit when the skins had split, but never before that because the fruits are very toxic. The settlers made jam from the fruit. Poroporo was grown until 1981 as a crop in Taranaki for producing hormonal steroids for birth control and pain-relief for rheumatoid arthritis. Several dyes for cloth have been produced from the branches and leaves.
Where can you find poroporo?
Look for poroporo in Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Centennial Reserve / Miramar Peninsula, other Wellington reserves, Lowry Bay Scenic Reserve and in the Remutaka Range. It colonises slips, clear-felled areas and private gardens, the seeds deposited there by birds.
A relative, S. aviculare, also called poroporo, has smaller, white or lavender flowers, up to 3.5 cm diameter. The petals have pointed ends. The stems are dark green. The species is described by DOC as ‘at risk – declining’.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 6, July 2023
July in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Sophora microphylla, Kōwhai,
Photo: John Barkla
Origin of the botanical names ‘Sophora’ comes from the Arabic word 'sufayra', the name of a leguminous tree; 'microphylla', meaning 'small-leaved', comes from the Greek words mikros ('small') and phyllon ('leaf'). Kōwhai is a member of the Fabaceae family which includes our native broom species in the Carmichaelia genus, kākābeak and the peas and beans which we eat.
Distribution and habitat
Kōwhai is endemic to New Zealand. It grows on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rekohu / Chatham Island but not on Rakiura / Stewart Island. It grows on sand dunes, river and lake edges and fertile stony slopes up to about 500 m altitude. Its seeds float and are durable in salt water - the result is that kōwhai is recorded in Chile and in the south Atlantic on Gough Island, and seeds have been seen on beaches in the Kermadec Islands.
Growth habit
Kōwhai is a tree up to ca. 25 m tall with a trunk up to 60 cm or more in diameter with smooth grey-brown bark. The finely hairy yellow or orange twigs of young plants have a densely tangled ‘divaricating’ form that may last for many years. The adult leaves, up to 15 cm long, bear 20-40 pairs of closely-spaced small, round leaflets per twig. The stalked and finely hairy leaflets are 4.5-12.5 x 2.3-5.7 mm. Kōwhai is semi-deciduous, so many leaves fall off in winter.
Reproduction
Kōwhai is the te reo word for yellow – the colour of its spectacular flowers. They appear in spring – 2-5 cm long, bright yellow, large, drooping and in groups of four to ten flowers on sometimes leafless branches. They produce 15 cm-long brown pea-like, winged and hairy seed pods each with up to twelve golden-yellow seeds 5-8 mm long. The pods split to disperse the seeds.
Uses
Kōwhai in flower are beautiful garden plants. The wood has been used to make tool handles, fence posts and the prongs and heads of hay rakes. An ointment of crushed, boiled kōwhai bark was used to bathe bruises. The bark, leaves, flowers and sap have been used medicinally but beware – treat all parts of the plant as possibly toxic. The petals can be used to produce a yellow dye. Tūī, korimako / bellbird and bees pollinate kōwhai while seeking the nectar and kererū eat the petals and leaves. Kōwhai moth caterpillars eat the leaves.
Where can you find kōwhai?
Look for it in local reserves, in the Tararua, Remutaka and Aorangi ranges or wherever you tramp.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 0, September 2023
September in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Streblus banksii, Ewekuri, Large-leaved milk tree
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Streblus’ is derived from the Greek word ‘streblos’ meaning ‘twisted’, referring to the zig-zag pattern of the branchlets; ‘banksii’ refers to Sir Joseph Banks (1743-1820), British naturalist on Cook's first voyage to New Zealand in 1769-1770. The large-leaved milk tree, previously named Paratrophis opaca, is one of three New Zealand species of Streblus, members of the family Moraceae which also includes mulberry, fig, breadfruit and jackfruit trees. All plants of the family contain a milky latex.
Distribution and habitat
the large-leaved milk tree is endemic to Aotearoa / New Zealand. It grows in coastal and lowland forests and forest margins on Te Ika a Māui / North Island, from Kaitaia southwards, and on coastal sites on Te Waipounamu / South Island in Pelorus and Queen Charlotte Sounds, Tasman Bay and Golden Bay.
Growth habit
Ewekuri grows up to 12 m tall with a trunk up to 80 cm diameter. The smooth bark is pale grey to dark brown. The branchlets are slightly hairy when young and have numerous corky lenticels through which gases escape. The juvenile leaves, 2-6 x 1-3 cm, are elliptic-oblong in outline, are often deeply lobed, and have shallow rounded teeth. The adult leaves, 3.5-8.5 x 2-3.5 cm, are on petioles / leaf stalks up to 1 cm long. The egg-shaped leaves are alternate. They have many shallow, rounded teeth and are attached to the petioles at the broad end. Look on the underside to see the obvious vein network and the raised main vein and side veins. Ewekuri and tūrepo often hybridise, making it difficult to distinguish between them. Ewekuri generally differs from tūrepo by virtue of its non-divaricating growth habit, larger leaves and drupes.
Reproduction
The large-leaved milk tree has small male and female flowers on separate plants. The tiny pale yellow flowers have no petals and are arranged on drooping inflorescences, the male up to 25 mm long and densely flowered; the female widely spaced up to 15 mm long. They are pollinated by the wind. The fruit are red and up to 5 mm diameter. Flowering is in spring and fruiting from mid-summer to autumn. Factors which put the fate of ewekuri at risk:
the palatability of the seeds to rats
the scattered nature of the populations of ewekuri
the fact that female and male flowers appear on separate trees
infestations of witches' broom, caused by tiny mites which inject hormones or enzymes into the young inflorescences. These mites can also affect the small-leaved milk tree (see August Tramper).
Uses
The milky juice exuded from the bark when damaged was used by colonists in tea, in place of milk.
Where can you find ewekuri / the large-leaved milk tree?
Look for it in Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, Trelissick Park, East Harbour Regional Park, Whareroa Farm Park, Raumati Escarpment Reserve, in Waikanae's E. C. Russell Reserve and Ngā Manu Nature Reserve and in the Remutaka and Aorangi ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 7, August 2022
August in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Streblus heterophyllus, tūrepo, Small-leaved milk tree
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Streblus’ is derived from the Greek word ‘streblos’ meaning ‘twisted’, referring to the zig-zag nature of the branchlets; ‘heterophyllus’ means ‘with differing leaves’, derived from the Greek word ‘heteros’, referring to the diverse leaf shapes. The small-leaved milk tree is one of three New Zealand species of Streblus, and belongs to the family Moraceae. The family also includes the mulberry, fig, breadfruit and jackfruit trees. All plants of the family contain a milky latex. The small-leaved milk tree has previously been named Paratrophis microphylla, then P. heterophylla.
Distribution and habitat
The small-leaved milk tree is endemic to Aotearoa / New Zealand. It grows in lowland forests and forest margins on Te Ika a Māui / North Island and on Te Waipounamu / South Island.
Growth habit
The small-leaved milk tree is a small tree or bushy shrub up to 12 m tall with a trunk up to 60 cm diameter and a whitish-grey, rough bark which has raised lenticels. The branchlets are long, slender, flexuous and interlacing, especially on juvenile plants. Juvenile leaves, 5-20 x 4-10 mm, are fiddle-shaped, usually dividing the leaf into a large lobe and two smaller lateral ones near the base. Adult leaves are mostly unlobed, up to 25 mm long, oval, darker green, with petioles up to 5 mm and the vein network visible underneath. All leaves have crenulate / serrate edges.
Reproduction
The small-leaved milk tree has male and female flowers on separate plants. The pale yellow tiny flowers have no petals and are arranged on drooping spikes: male up to 25 mm long and dense flowered; female widely spaced up to 15 mm long. The fruit are red and up to 5 mm diameter. Flowering is from October to February and fruiting from November to March.
Uses
The milky juice exuded from the bark when damaged was used by colonists in tea in place of milk.
Where can you find the small-leaved milk tree?
Ōtari-Wilton's Bush, Trelissick Park, Huntleigh Park, and in the Akatarawa, Tararua and Remutaka ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 95, # 9, October 2023
October in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Syzygium maire, maire tawake, waiwaka, Swamp maire
Photo: Peter J de Lange
Origin of the botanical names
‘Syzygium’ means ‘yoked together, with flower parts fused’, derived from the Greek words ‘syn’ for ‘together’ and ‘zygon’ for ‘a yoke for plough, oxen’; ’maire’ is the Māori name of the tree. Maire belongs to the family Myrtaceae which also includes mānuka, rātā, pōhutukawa, and other closely related species in Aotearoa/New Zealand, all at risk from myrtle rust disease. It has previously been described as Eugenia maire.
Distribution and habitat
Maire tawake is endemic to this country. It grows in lowland forest, water-logged ground, margins of swamps and stream-sides on Te Ika a Māui / North Island and on Te Waipounamu / South Island as far south as northern Marlborough. It is now nationally threatened since the clearance of swamp forests.
Growth habit
Maire tawake is a tree up to 16 m tall with a trunk up to 60 cm diameter. It has a somewhat flaky, pale bark. Trunks may be divided into more than one. In wet places, knees and erect aerial breathing roots called pneumatophores emerge above the water. Branches are spreading and produce spreading 4-angled branchlets. The leaves are opposite, 15-60 × 10-25 mm, slightly leathery, yellow-green and glossy above, often with little blisters and a paler green underside with the midrib raised. The leaf edges are slightly wavy and smooth.
Reproduction
Flowers are 5-30 in clusters up to 100 mm in diameter, each flower with numerous 5-18 mm long, white stamens. The fruit are sub-globose, crimson-red and berry-like, 10-15 mm in diameter, resembling some gum-nut capsules. Each fruit contains a single, hard seed/stone. Flowering is usually in summer with the berries ripening in autumn and winter.
Uses
Maire tawake wood, bark, young twigs and flowers have been used to produce black and blue dyes. The hard wood was used for implements and weapons. The inner bark has been used to treat ringworm.
Where can you find maire tawake?
Look for it in Zealandia, Moana Rd route - Days Bay, Manawa Karioi (rare), Horoeka Street Scenic Reserve – Stokes Valley, Brookfield Wildlife Refuge and Outdoor Education Centre - Wainuiomata, Tāne’s Track - Tunnel Gully, Wi Tako Scenic Reserve - Silverstream, Pākuratahi Forest, Fendalton Reserve and Lowe’s Bush - Wairarapa, Devil’s Elbow - Reikorangi, Whareroa Farm, Ngā Manu Nature Reserve - Waikanae, and in the Akatarawa, Tararua and Remutaka ranges.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 85, no 5, June 2013
A warm autumn in Wellington with Barbara Mitcalfe and Chris Horne
Tecomanthe speciosa
 Tecomanthe speciosa Photo: Ewen Cameron |
On a recent BBB tramp, walk or run you may have noticed that our extraordinarily-warm Autumn weather has encouraged profuse flowering of one of our rarest indigenous lianes, tecomanthe. Cascading over the hand-rail at the Otari Visitor Centre, climbing the Tree House lift tower in the Botanic Garden, clambering up the NZ School of Music at Victoria University, adorning the fence at Kelburn Medical Centre, and thriving on the roof of DOC's Conservation House, Manners St, this robust, Three Kings endemic liane has no Māori or common name, being known simply as tecomanthe.
In 1945 a party of botanists discovered a single plant of what we now call tecomanthe, on Manawa Tawhi, the largest of the Three Kings Islands off the north coast of Northland. Completely unknown to the world of science, it was being browsed almost to death by goats. Fortunately, six cuttings were taken and successfully propagated by horticulturists on the mainland, because the original plant produced no flowers from 1946 to the 1990s, and since then, it has not produced seed. Goat eradication on the island in 1946 rescued this handsome species from extinction, and luckily too, the cuttings produced viable plants, from which all subsequent tecomanthe plants have been grown.
A member of the largely tropical Bignoniaceae family, Tecomanthe speciosa has the DOC Conservation Threat Status of Nationally Critical. Its large, broadly-ovate, glossy, dark-green leaves comprise either one or two pairs of opposite leaflets, and a single terminal leaflet. The plump, green flower buds start off looking like shiny little cucumbers, in cluster of up to 50, growing straight out of the trunks. Then they turn bright white, resembling crowded bunches of small, fat, white bananas. The elegantly-beautiful, pendulous, tubular flowers, greenish-white to creamy-yellow, are each cupped in a green calyx, their petals up to c. 50 mm long. After fertilisation, the numerous seeds develop in woody pods which can often reach 200 mm long x c. 40 mm wide.
Like all small populations of plants and animals in what is called a genetic “bottle-neck”, (for instance, the Chatham Island black robin), Tecomanthe speciosa, a clone, lacks the genetic variability to deal effectively with environmental change. This means that it could more easily be wiped out by e.g. a pathogen, or a climatic change which does not suit its requirements. So if Wellington’s climate continues to warm, maybe we should all encourage lots of plantings of tecomanthe, in order to increase its chances of survival.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 84, # 8, September 2012
September in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Great to eat but hard to pronounce – take it syllable by syllable, just as you would take the leaves off, one by one, to eat raw in salads or barely cooked.
Tetragonia tetragonioides, Kōkihi, NZ native spinach
 Tetragonia tetragonioides, Kōkihi Photo: Jeremy Rolfe |
We are writing about two species of native spinach here, both of them edible, but this one, (Tet tet for short), although a very uncommon, threatened plant in the wild, is readily available in plant shops, and is often grown as a vegetable.
As well as being a native NZ plant, it is also native to Australia, Asia and parts of the Pacific. It's a fast-growing scrambler, with sappy stems as thick as your little finger. Its succulent, shovel-shaped dark green leaves about 10 cm by 6 cm make very attractive ground cover all year round - see image. Like non-native spinach, it likes and deserves good soil. Its tiny, bright-yellow flowers are followed by small, woody, horned capsules containing the seeds. These usually self-sow, so you can be sure of a constant supply of this useful stand-by vegetable, handy for any purposes for which you might use non-native spinach – soups, quiches, omelettes, stirfry, salads, etc. If/when the plants get straggly, compost them and they will break down rapidly, while their seedlings are growing to a useable size in the garden. Packets of NZ native spinach seeds and punnets of 6 young plants are available in the garden department of at least one Wellington city supermarket, and at garden centres, this month.
High in vitamin C, in 1769 Tet tet was used extensively and successfully by both Cook and de Surville, who realised its antiscorbutic value. Their crews, desperately weak from scurvy after months at sea, swiftly recovered when plentiful helpings of these greens were added to their daily diet. It is not recorded whether the officers stood over the sailors, saying, “Now you make sure you eat all your greens, sailor .....”
Tetragonia implexicoma
Trampers are sure to have noticed this other NZ spinach species - Tet imp for short - on coastal tramps. Commonly occurring in coastal ecosystems, it is not a threatened plant. Its thin, wiry, reddish stems scramble over coastal shrubs such as pōhuehue. The leaves are smaller and paler green than Tet tet, broadly diamond-shaped, and fleshy. They usually have a pleasantly salty taste - green chips anyone? Little yellow flowers are followed by small, bright red, succulent fruit, a contrast to Tet tet's woody capsules.
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 83, # 7, August 2011
August in the forest with Chris Horne and Barbara Mitcalfe
Urtica ferox Ongaonga Tree nettle
Our well-known NZ stinging nettle, ongaonga, Urtica ferox, is one of over 1000 species in the worldwide nettle family, Urticaceae. It is one of nine indigenous NZ nettle species. Not all nettle species sting - many have medicinal properties; some can be eaten, providing a good source of Vitamin C, and NZ and non-NZ nettle species are hosts for red admiral butterflies.
But before we go any further - yes, the substance injected at your slightest touch, by ongaonga's “hypodermics”, (technically, stinging hairs), is a potent, nerve toxin. It causes the victim's body to react instantly with an extreme histamine response. Too much of it has proved fatal to humans and some animals, dogs and horses in particular.
Most trampers are likely to have experienced the acute pins-and-needles tingling, alternating with numbness, which can last intermittently for 2 – 3 days, after an encounter with ongaonga. You can use antihistamine ointment from your first aid kit to reduce these symptoms, but if respiratory or muscular coordination symptoms occur, seek medical help. Infants and young children need to be kept well away from ongaonga.
Make a point of teaching children, and visitors to NZ, to recognise this twiggy shrub which grows from 1 to 3 m high, often found in sunny places at bush margins. Its pale green, serrated leaves are usually c.12 cm long by 3-5 cm wide, and the minute flowers are crowded on fine, dangling twigs. Leaves and stems are armed with white, stinging hairs, each hair fed by a tiny bladder of toxin.
Keep an eye out for Urtica incisa, another NZ stinging nettle species common around Wellington, looking just like a small version of Urtica ferox.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 0, November 2023
November in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Veronica stricta var. stricta, Koromiko,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
Veronica is the Latin name of a legendary female saint and the name of the daughter of H. G. Fell, Professor of Zoology at Victoria University of Wellington in the 1940s; stricta comes from the Latin word strictus meaning erect, stiff, narrow and very straight. The Veronica genus was named in 1846. Later it was renamed Hebe and recently reverted to Veronica. There are about 105 species of Veronica in our flora – our largest genus of flowering plants. Koromiko belongs to the Plantaginaceae family.
Distribution and habitat
Koromiko is endemic to Aotearoa. It is grows on Te Ika a Maui/North Island and in Nelson, Marlborough and North Canterbury on Te Waipounamu/South Island. Look for it from coastal areas to the bush-line and sometimes to 1000m above sea-level, also in shrub-land, on cliffs and on forest margins.
Growth habit
Koromiko is a shrub up to 4 m tall with many widely spaced branches. The bark is grey. The rather thin, lance-shaped leaves are 2-13 x ca. 4.5 cm - often several times longer than wide. They taper gradually to the tip and more rapidly to the base. They are slightly leathery, are not shiny and may have widely spaced tiny teeth. They are arranged in opposite pairs of four ranks, giving a characteristic regular appearance to the shoots.
Reproduction
The white or pale mauve flowers are ca. 3 mm in diameter. They grow in the axils where the leaves grow on branchlets. The groups of tiny flowers have been likened to bottle brushes. The pleasantly scented flowers appear in late summer and the fruit in autumn. The seed capsules are ca. 3 x 2 mm. The seeds which are ejected when the pods decay are wind-dispersed and germinate easily.
Uses
Bruised leaves have been used in a poultice to treat ulcers, boils, bladder and kidney ailments, STDs and headaches. The astringent nature of the young leaf tips has been known to generations of Māori as a cure for diarrhoea and dysentery. Quantities of leaf tips were sent to Māori troops serving in the Middle East in World War Two and soon the Pākehā troops demanded supplies to cure them of these diseases. The flowers produce a light-yellow honey. Early colonists valued the wood because it is elastic and tough and makes good firewood.
Where can you find koromiko?
Look for it in the Remutaka, Aorangi and Tararua ranges and in reserves in the Wellington area.
This article was first published in the Tararua Tramper Volume 94, # 4, May 2022
May in the hills with Michele Dickson, Chris Horne
Weinmannia racemosa, Kāmahi, tawheo, tawhero, tawherowhero,
Photo: Jeremy Rolfe
Origin of the botanical names
‘Weinmannia’ is named after the Bavarian apothecary Johann Wilhelm Weinmann (1683-1741); ‘racemosa’ comes from the Latin word ‘racemus’ meaning bunch of grapes or fruit, referring to the flowers arranged in racemes. Some botanists have recently placed the two New Zealand species of Weinmannia in the genus Pterophylla. Kāmahi is one of the three New Zealand members of the family Cunoniaceae, the other two being found only in the north of the North Island.
Distribution and habitat
Kāmahi is endemic to Aotearoa. It is found on Te Ika a Māui / North Island from South Waikato southwards, on Te Waipounamu / South Island and Rakiura / Stewart Island. It is one of our most common forest trees, often becoming locally dominant at higher altitudes of the North Island and western South Island. At lower altitudes, it can be common to sea level, found in many different forest types and establishes early in regenerating areas.
Growth habit
Kāmahi is a tree up to 25 m or more tall. Its trunk is up to 1.2 m in diameter, with usually smooth greyish bark, and sometimes it has multiple trunks. It often begins life as a seedling on a tree fern's fibrous trunk. The ovate-elliptic leaves are opposite, 3-10 x 2-4 cm, single on adult plants, slightly leathery and coarsely serrate. They are deep green, sometimes mildly tinged with yellow or bronze when young. Leaf stalks are up to 2 cm. The juvenile leaves, seedling leaves and often those of new shoots are 3-lobed or 3-foliate and smaller.
Reproduction
The numerous small flowers are white or pale pink. They are arranged on finger-like spikes 8-12 cm long and have both male and female parts. The male parts (stamens) are protruding, 8 -10 per flower and up to 1 cm long, giving the spike a mini-bottle-brush appearance. A range of insects and birds are attracted to the flowers. The fruits are dry capsules 4-5 mm long, cylindrical, grey at first then becoming brown. Capsules split open at maturity releasing numerous seeds, 1.0-1.5 mm long, elliptic-oblong, orange-brown, apices bearing dense hair tufts that aid wind dispersal. Flowering is from July to January and fruiting is from October to May.
Uses
Māori used the inner bark which was boiled or steeped in hot water to make an antiseptic tonic used for healing wounds and burns. Other parts were used to make a drink for chest complaints. Tannic acid in the bark was used by tanners for dyeing. Māori used the wood to make beaters and tool handles. The timber, a less durable hardwood, has been used in cabinet making and ornamental work as well as treated timber for fence posts, sleepers, house blocks and wharf piles. Try kāmahi honey!
Where can you find kāmahi?
Look for kāmahi in Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush, Zealandia's Fuchsia Track, East Harbour Regional Park, Hutt Valley hills and in the Remutaka, Akatarawa and Tararua ranges.