Flora of New Zealand!

Part 1: General Flora of Southern New Zealand 

(note: of course, these are not ALL the plants in New Zealand. This is not even a comprehensive guide. (notice how I don't have a silver fern in here anywhere? What's wrong with me? Why didn't I take a picture of an unfurling fern?!?) Some of my facts may be incorrect, since I rely heavily on notes I took while tromping behind Geoff or Gay or listening in on other people's conversations in various hostels or on guided tours. I did some research online to pull all these facts together, but I didn't cross reference to make sure that the sites I found were reputable, or that the facts checked out. So if you're looking for something scholarly, please look elsewhere. This is a layman's guide that is more or less accurate, but may lead you astray.) 

Cabbage Tree (Cordyline australis)-- is a hardy plant that arrived ( with others of its species) in New Zealand with an influx of other tropical plants in the warmer Miocene era some fifteen million years ago, and has since adapted to the much colder temperatures since then, but still gives the area a somewhat tropical looking vibe. Maori and settlers rely on the trees for a variety of things: using the leaves for the fibers to make shoes, clothing, ropes, etc. They also strip off the outer leaves and eat the tender inner leaves and shoots, sort of like an artichoke heart. The settlers called this plant the cabbage of their new home, hence the name "Cabbage Tree," but according to Georg Foster, writing home about it in 1773, it supposedly tastes more like almond.                                                                                           

New Zealand Flax (Phormium tenax) -- generally found in lowland swamps, but it can grow anywhere. Farmers use it as natural fencing (as seen here) because it grows together to create a natural, impenetrable wall. The nectar of the flowers is sweet and can be sucked out right there (almost like our honeysuckle). Many birds, like tuis, feed on Flax nectar. Flax is a monocot (meaning the veins of the leaves go only in one direction, rather than in veins, like a leaf of a tree) and is heavily fibrous. The leaf of a flax plant splits easily, and can be hacked off with a mussel shell or other sharp object, dried, and used to create cords, clothing, or other materials with comparative ease. Thus, these plants were the basis of both Maori and the settler's clothing and textiles.    

Tree Fuchsia (Fuchsia excorticata) -- Tree Fuchsia is one of the only deciduous trees in New Zealand. Most of the rest are evergreen. There are many many types of Fuchsia, but this species is the largest, growing up to sometimes fifty feet in height. The berry is edible, and sometimes used to make jams or puddings. 






Note the curling bark, its most distinctive feature, flaking off in long, curling strips, which is sometimes called "bushman's toilet paper." 

Three Fuchsias in a row. Sometimes they are shrub like, but in old-growth forest settings (like here, in the Catlins, a New Zealand Rain-forest ) they attain substantial height and become quite distinguished looking. 

Gill Fungi--after some light research on a NZ mushroom hunter's site, I'm going to say that these may be Agrocybe praecox, but as a decided NON EXPERT, and with the wide range and subtle nuances of fungi out there, I just don't have enough information to tell for sure.  I found these on a log, in wet-ish conditions, on Dec. 30th. It's probably  always wet in the Catlins. 
  

(allaboutmushrooms.com)

Hebe Elliptica--no common name. A common bush. Thick leaves (almost like a succulent), with white flowers. 

Cottonwood Shrub (Cassinia leptophylla subsp. vauvilliersii)-- common in coastal areas. the small green leaves have a fine silver hair underneath. These plants prefer full sun areas. If the area is not heavily grazed, the cottonwood shrub is beaten out by trees and plants that grow taller than it.  Crude extracts have been shown to posses anti-fungal and antiviral agents. 

(TER:RAIN.net Taranaki Educational Resource)

Stinkwood (Coprosma foetidissima)-- actually does stink like rotten cabbage when you crush the leaves in your hand. The smell derives from the gas methanethiol, also called methyl mercaptan, which is a colorless gas (TER:RAIN.net). The tree gets to be about twenty feet high. 








Lemonwood or Tarata (Pittosporum eugenioides) -- A tree that grows to about forty feet high, and has a nice lemony scent when the leaves are crushed. 

Poroporo (Solanum aviculare)-- can grow about twelve feet tall. Most importantly, however, is that it's a member of the family Solanum, which includes other well known plants, such as the tomato, the potato, and the eggplant, as well as deadly nightshade. In fact, Poroporo is used as a rootstock for grafting eggplant. 

Lancewood, or Horoeka (Pseudopanax crassifolius)-- When the plant is young the leaves, which are stiff and  leathery, and point downward. Slowly, as the plant matures (over the course of 15 to 20 years), the leaves shorten and start pointing upwards, as you can see this specimen starting to do here. Once it is fully mature it attains traditional branches and the trunk thickens. 

Geoff with Wineberry Trees (human planted)

 Wineberry Tree (Aristotelia serrata) -- A native New Zealand Plant that is deciduous in colder climates. The trees are dioecious, which means that each tree is either male or female, so in order to get fruit, you have to have both a male and a female tree near to one another to pollinate together. They produce a small purple berry that is good for making wine or jelly. Children often eat them raw. The berries can be also used to make dyes, or medicinally to treat sore eyes, rheumatism or burns, depending on how you prepare the berry (School of Biological Science, University of Auckland). 

Examples of Weeds of Southern New Zealand

Thistle (most likely from the genus Cirsium)--There are many many different genuses that fall under the category for "thistle," and answer to the description of "weed with pokey bits and flowers on top." Some of them hybridize, too, so it's sometimes hard to say which are which. This picture looks more like the genus Cirsium, so we'll go with that. Thistles, like so many British flowers, aren't supposed to be in New Zealand, and now that they're there, they're not going anywhere. It's literally impossible to get rid of a thistle. If you pull it up you won't get all of the root, which will simply regrow the plant. And Scotland already made it their national symbol, so   NZ can't turn around and start claiming love for the stupid thing now. 

Himalayan Honeysuckle (Leycesteria formosa)-- a shrub that is native to China and the himalayans. Considered an invasive weed. 

Foxglove (Digitalis purpurea)-- a weed brought from Europe, and extremely hard to be rid of. Due to the presence of digitoxin in the leaves, flowers and seeds, this plant is toxic to humans and many animals, although for that exact reason it can be used as medication for heart failure--although minute changes in the dose of the medication can change it from ineffectual to fatal. 









Part II: The Bog

Sphagnum Moss--may hold up anywhere from 16 to 26 times as much water as it's weight, depending on its individual species. There are 150 species of Sphagnum moss, (with Sphagnum as the genus) and depending on the PH levels in a bog, any number of different species may coexist together. The moss creates anaerobic conditions--which just means that it breaks down biodegradable compounds but without the use of oxygen. It has the capacity to build up to a depth of many meters, and thus creates a basis for other plants to grow in, similarly to soil. 

Wire Rush  (Empodisma minus)--is the next organism to grow on top of the Sphagnum Moss, but the roots of the Wire Rush can also hold fifteen times its weight in water. The roots grow throughout the moss, holding onto litter (which provides nutrients as well as thickness) as well as the moss, and then each stem and root system has a life of several years. When you consider that many rushes drop their stems and slough off roots after a year, this is a big deal. Eventually, the Sphagnum will retreat slightly and the Wire Rush's root system will predominate. 

 Manuka (Leptospermum scoparium)--is a bush or shrub that grows in southern New Zealand, although it's thought that it originated in Australia. It is one of the first trees to grow in a recently cleared area. It's often called a "tea tree," because Captain Cook made tea from the bark and leaves, although now you're more likely to find people selling "Manuka Honey" than "Manuka Tea." 

Simon, holding Manuka Flowers for you!

 Manuka grows naturally out on the bog, and on the farm, in quite good numbers. It generally only grows to be about sixteen feet high, but sometimes it can grow to be fifty. It tends to be more squat than tall. 

 

The Bog, in total, where we can see water welling up from underneath, and the wire rush, the ubiquitous Flax, and then Manuka bushes. 

Part III: West Coast Of Southland New Zealand, And the Large Podocarps

The West coast of New Zealand is mountainous, being taken up by Fiords and sounds, and generally covered by Podocarp and Beech hardwood rainforests. Some of these trees are found around the rest of Southland as well, but they are New Zealand's large trees. Because many of these trees grow densely in the forest and are hard to identify individually, except as a part of that forest, I don't have pictures of all of them, myself. I have pictures of various rainforest scapes that I went through, but I don't have pictures of a singular beech tree, for instance. So I've supplemented my photos with photos of those trees. I've given credit to all photographers that aren't me.

Tree Fern (Dicksonia fibrosa) --common names include the Jade Tree Fern, the Golden Tree fern, or the Woolly Tree fern. When you're not sure exactly which type of tree fern you're looking at, though, a generic "Tree Fern" is acceptable. May grow to 16 ft, and can have a spread in the canopy of up to 13 feet. Is slow growing. 

 Southern Rātā (Metrosideros umbellata)--The Southern Rata (and it's closely related cousin, the Northern Rata) are the Christmas blooms of Southland, blooming around christmas time. They grow very slowly. In the rainforest area of Fiordlands, where there are areas of undisturbed forest dated at a thousand years old, the Rata branches are still comparatively thin, even though the tree itself is a thousand years old. Because the tree grows so slowly, the wood has time to become very very hard, earning it the nickname, "ironwood." 

Photo Credit goes to Craig McKenzie, 2008

The Northern Rata sometimes will start it's life cycle as a parasite on a taller tree, wrapping itself around the larger tree until it achieves a certain size and can send down roots to the floor. Thus, its trunk starts out hollow. Southern Rata does not do this; Northern Rata only does this in certain conditions. 

Juvenile Kamahi

Kamahi (Weinmannia racemosa)-- a medium sized tree, occurring frequently all over Southland New Zealand.  It often is an early settler in a forest, and quickly being taken over by other podocarps, or by nothofagus (the large beech trees). 

Kamahi flowers (Photo belongs to Airborn Honey Limited)

Podocarpaceae Family:

For those of you not botanically inclined, here is a quick update: all living things are classified into a series of orders that get progressively smaller and smaller. Generally, the broadest of those categories are Kingdoms, which separates plants from animals, fungi and bacteria, and then "Division" separates, within plants, different broad types of plants-- grasses from trees, for instance--and then within trees there are many different types of trees, and within one of those types there are more even more types, etc. "Family" is five separations down. After Family comes genus and species. When you see the name of the plant, in italics, you are seeing first the genus name, and then the species name. The Genus is sort of like the nuclear family that the plant belongs to, whereas the species refers only to that specific type of plant--like there may be thousands of frasier firs individuals, but they are all one species of tree. Sometimes species can interbreed, but sometimes they cannot. 

So the Family is more comprehensive than the genus (the nuclear family). The Family is like your extended family that includes cousins you haven't talked to in a long time, and maybe that aren't related to you very closely. They share some similar traits. The Podocarp family, for instance, are conifers, but do not produce cones (like the kind you put in your Christmas wreathes). Instead, they produce single scales that ripen into single seeds that are covered by fleshy fruit to attract birds--in other words, they produce a type of berry like thing. That is why they are special. So the Podocarp Family is a big extended family, which includes many more members than the ones I show here, but here are the stars, the most famous members. 

Kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides) --The 
Kahikatea was called "the white pine" for a while, even though it's not a pine at all. That name is slowly fading away. Kahikatea generally likes to live in flood plains, where there is fertile, silty soil, or in lowland swamps or bogs. It can grow to about 180 feet tall. Various sources say they can live to 550 years, although that is unsupported, but seemingly possible. The wood is not as rot-resistant, strong, or attractive as the wood from other conifers, and so wasn't used for as many purposes. Still, timbering took out many of the pure Kahikatea forests in New Zealand, and now only small portions of pure Kahikatea forest are left, although individual trees exist all over the islands (The Gymnosperm Database).

photo belongs to the NZ
Department of Conservation

  

Miro (Prumnopitys ferrugineus)--Also known as the "Brown Pine," even though this isn't a pine tree either. Very similar to the Matai, but has enough differences to be discernible. Can grow to 82 feet tall. Bark flakes off to leave a distinctive hammer mark pattern (like the Matai), but the pattern is not as colorful nor as striking as the pattern in the Matai. Produces a red to purple red fruit covering a single seed that is then eaten and distributed by the New Zealand Pigeon (The Gymnosperm Database). 

 ( Photo Credit from left to right: Phil Bendle and Ter:Rain.net; Photo found and potentially credited to the Ohongorongo Club of Wellington.)

Rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum)--The tallest and most common of the Podocarps, Rimus crown at around 165 feet, and have a distinctive drooping quality to their boughs. They can live upwards of 1,000 years, although 550 or 650 years is more common, because they are prone to uprooting if the wind is too strong. Rimus often support young Rata plants growing in their upper branches. Their wood is the most commonly milled and used for furniture, as well as framing, weather boarding, flooring and paneling. 

Note the distinctive bark pattern, which I think is quite lovely.  

Rimu Fruit
(Photo belongs to Don Merton)

Tōtara (Podocarpus totara)--grows anywhere from 60 to 80 feet high, although the largest living Totara is closer to 130 feet tall, and is thought to be 1,800 years old. The bark peels off in strips and the wood is light, attractive, rot resistant, and good for a number of uses, including but not limited to: houses, musical instruments, toys, railway sleepers, fence posting, canoes, roofing, torches, containers, etc.  There are four species of Totara (Totara, Hall's totara, Needle-leaved totara, and Snow totara,) which hybridize quite easily and so it can be quite difficult to identify which species (or hybrid) an individual tree happens to be (Wassielieff).

Photo Credit goes to Kahuroa, 2007

Photo credit goes to Kahuroa, 2007

Photo Credit goes to
Kahuroa, 2007 

Matai (Prumnopitys taxifolia)-- Grows to 121 feet high. Unlike the Miro, which it is very similar to, it has a prolonged juvenile stage, where it stays as a shrub with yellow, off white, and brownish needles. The adult tree will grow out of the top of the shrub, the branches with these needles will drop off, and then the tree will progress from there. The wood of the adult tree has been used prodigiously for flooring, and although it is not endangered, very few areas of dominant Matai forest remain. 

Matai bough and fruit. (Photo belongs to Wayne Bennett)

The Beeches (Nothofagus): 

The rainforests of Fiordlands are predominatly taken up by Beeches. These beeches are a (maybe distant) relation of the american beech, but they are evergreens, rather than deciduous (so they keep their leaves all year, rather than loosing them seasonally, like ours). They also live for about five hundred years, which is probably longer than any American Beech is likely to see. The American Beech (which has a genus name of just Fagus) has a leaf about the size of a human palm, maybe a little smaller, with serrated leaves. You are probably somewhat familiar: 

The New Zealand Beeches (with a Genus name of Nothofagus) typically have much smaller leaves, although even then there's great variety. Consider this picture, where letters A, B, C, D and E are all leaves from various species within the Nothofagus genus on the island Caledonia, off the coast of Australia, and letters F,G,H,I and J are all Nothofagus species in New Zealand. Letter I is the leaf of the Silver Beech (Nothofagus menziesii) which we'll be talking about a lot in a minute. It's basically the size of of the tip of your pinky, maybe smaller. 

F, G, H, I and J are Beeches in New Zealand.
Photo Credit goes to M.D. King

So you see, there can be a great deal of variety in even a genus (a nuclear family). The reason for this is very exciting, and hotly contested. (When botanists contest something, they do it hotly.)

The Beeches (Nothofagus) came to New Zealand early, when New Zealand was still part of the southern land mass compromising several current day continents, called Gondwana. Pangaea, the super continent,  was made up of Laurasia and Gondwana. Gondwana was made up of current day Antarctica, South America, Africa, Madagascar, Australia, the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Subcontinent, which has since moved significantly north (and in doing so created some lovely mountain-scapes! Guess which ones! For the answer, highlight here: Himalayans). Because all of these places were all one place, animals and plants could travel very easily. In fact, this is where and when all of the tales of Middle Earth came from and actually happened (I am not kidding. They have found  skeletons in caves that are the exact sizes of hobbits. YOU TELL ME WHAT TO THINK WITH THIS INFORMATION).

So we find Nothofagus not only in New Zealand, but also in Chile, Australia, Caledonia (island off Australia), and Antarctica (just fossils, though, there). At one point, all those places were thick as thieves, but now they are divorced, with oceans of problems between them. They don't talk, they don't write-- it's very sad. 

We know that Nothofagus arrived in New Zealand during this time period not only because we find it in all these other places, but also because Nothofagus seeds can't survive in the sea for very long, and birds don't eat and carry the seeds. So the seeds couldn't have traveled great distances--the seeds had to have traveled short distances over a long period of time. They had to have been already established on the land of New Zealand. Then, when New Zealand broke away from Australia, Nothofagus was already there. We also have various fossil records that lead us to this conclusion. (Isn't this exciting?!?!) 

Originally, the beeches were linked to the American Beech, Fagus, but some botanists think they may be closer related to the Birch family. This is what is hotly contested. They all are under the same Order (part of that Kindom, Phylum, Class system of organization I was talking about earlier), Fagale, which encompasses the birches (Betualacea), the Beeches (Fagacaea) and the Southern Beeches (Nothofagacaea), as well as the She-oaks, the walnuts, the bayberrys and the ticodendron. I have no idea what the last one is. So they are distantly related, but not as closely related to the American Beech as their name implies. 

New Zealand boasts several different types of Nothofagus species. The Silver Beech is the most popular, because it is the one that grows in Fiordlands National Park. Mosses and lichens build up and hang off their branches, and at least five hundred different kinds of ferns grow throughout the forest, Kamahi grows in open spots before a silver Beech can establish itself, and then other Podocarps may also have spots where they make an appearance. Red Beech is the second most common type of Beech in Fiordlands, but is more common elsewhere in New Zealand. 

Ferns are a large part of the undergrowth in this ecosystem

Beech Trees are often Buttressed--this photo was taken
in Haast pass, not in Fiordlands, so this may be a different
kind of  Beech, rather than a Silver Beech. 

  So all of these trees come together and create Rainforests where, until Europeans arrived, there were no predators. Birds were the only animals that could get to the island. Some lakes in New Zealand didn't even have any fish in them. 

The Beeches in other areas of New Zealand are cool because there is a small insect that insect that inserts itself into the tree, draws off some of the sap that the tree isn't using, and the excess sugar (that the insect doesn't need for itself) collects at its back end, the part of the insect that's still sticking out of the tree, its anus. the sugar collects there, just a drop, and birds come and feed on those drops of "honeydew." They consider it quite convenient  actually. The best part is that the insect's presence in the tree doesn't seem to hurt the tree at all, and it gives the birds in the forest an extra food source that they've evolved to rely on. The only tree that the scale insect doesn't invade is the Silver Beech, in Fiordland--so the honeydew insect lives quite comfortably in every other rainforest in New Zealand, except in Fiordlands, where the Silver Beech predominates. 

In these next three photos you can see Fiordland's Silver Beech Forests with a variety of different types of trees interspersed. In the undergrowth will be the tree ferns (and other ferns). The Kamahi and Rata and some of the medium sized Podocarps, like the Totara and Miro, will be in the mid layer. the really tall trees might be the Rimu, the Matai, or the Kahikatea, but mostly you'll be seeing the Silver Beech, which is predominant. 

Isn't that exciting? 

                                                            Works Cited

Bennett, Wayne. Matai Bough and Fruit. N.d. Photograph. Flora Forest, Ngaruawahia, New Zealand. Native Plant Nursery Specialising in Recreating Forests and Wetlands. Flora Forest. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

"Coprosma (Hupiro) Coprosma Foetidissima." T.E.R:R.A.I.N Teranaki Educational Resource. T.E.R:R.A.I.N - Taranaki Educational Resource, 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

"Dacrycarpus Dacrydioides (kahikatea)." The Gymnosperm Database. Ed. Christopher J. Earle. Conifers.org, 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

"Flowering Seed Plants: North and South Islands: Makomako, Wineberry." The School of Biological Sciences. The University of Auckland, n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

Forster, G. (1777). A Voyage round the World in His Britannic Majesty's Sloop Resolution, Commanded

by Capt. James Cook, during the Years 1772, 3, 4, and 5. London.

Kahikatea Fruit. N.d. Photograph. Kahikatea Walk, Manawatu, New Zealand. Manawatu/Whanganui. New Zealand Department of Conservation. Web. 22 Jan. 2013.

Kamahi Flowers. N.d. Photograph. Kamahi, New Zealand. Airborne's New Zealand Honey Collections. Airborn Honey. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.

King, M. D. New Zealand and New Caledonian Nothofagus Leaves. 2012. Photograph. Victoria, University of Wellington Library, Wellington, New Zealand. FOREST VINES TO SNOW TUSSOCKS: THE STORY OF NEW ZEALAND PLANTS (Chapter Five, Beech Forests). Victoria University of Wellington. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

McKenzie, Craig. Southern Rata, Auckland Islands. 2008. Photograph. Auckland Islands. Flickr. Yahoo!, 4 Feb. 2008. Web. 21 Jan. 2013.

Merton, Don. Rimu Fruit. 2009. Photograph. City Parrots, New Zealand. City Parrots. Roelant Jonker and Grace Innemee, 14 Jan. 2009. Web. 22 Jan. 2013.

Miro Berries. N.d. Photograph. Wellington. Orongorongo Club. Orongorongo Club. Web. 23 Jan. 2013. <http://www.orongorongo.wellington.net.nz/miro.htm>.

"Ozothamnus Vauvilliersii (Mountain Cottonwood)." T.E.R:R.A.I.N Teranaki Educational Resource. T.E.R:R.A.I.N, 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

Phil, Bendle. An Adult Miro Trunk. N.d. Photograph. Prumnopitys Ferruginea (Miro), New Zealand. T.E.R:R.A.I.N. Taranaki Educational Resource:Research, Analysis and Information Network. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

"Prumnopitys Ferruginea (Miro)." The Gymnosperm Database. Ed. Christopher J. Earle. Conifers.org, 23 Nov. 2012. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

Samy, Aiman. "Bolbitaceae, Group: Agrocybe." All About Mushrooms. N.p., 20 Jan. 2007. Web. 23 Jan. 2013.

Wassilieff, Maggy. 'Conifers - Tōtara group', Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 7-

Dec-11