ARTICLE : Plants of conservation concern in Wellington

 December 2001 – Plants of conservation concern in Wellington

Wellington Plant Conservation Network

A regional meeting of the Wellington Plant Conservation Network was held at Nga Manu Nature Reserve.   This brought together all those involved in plant conservation on the Kapiti Coast for discussions about past and future projects.   Meetings of the Wellington network are planned for early in 2002.

Preservation Island (an initiative of Nga Manu Trust) was opened this month.   The island was established at Nga Manu, Waikanae, to provide a safe haven for populations of Wellington’s rarest native plant species including Lepidium oleraceum, Urtica linearifolia, Streblus banksii, Carex litorosa and many others.   This will be a valuable resource for ecological restoration in the region.

New discoveries

As usual over the past few months many of the region’s botanists have been finding previously unrecorded populations of some of our rarest plant species.

At least nine new Peraxilla tetrapetala (red mistletoe) records have been made for Holdsworth area in the Tararua Range (found by Trevor Thompson, Chris Hopkins, Jason Diederich and DOC staff).   Discoveries have been made by Chris Hopkins of the two mistletoe species Ileostylus micranthus and Korthalsella lindsayii beside the Wainuiomata River on the Coast road south of Wainuiomata.   K. lindsayii had not been seen at this site since 1939 and the last recording of I. micranthus was Atkinson’s record in 1921.

The Pterostylis micromega site discovered last year in southern Wairarapa, where only one plant was found, now supports three flowering plants.   The rare swamp nettle Urtica linearifolia has recently been found by Pat Enright and Olaf John to the north of the Aorangi Range in the Ruakokoputuna area of eastern Wairarapa.

Also in the Wairarapa new plant populations have been found of Teucridium parvifolium (at Tinui), the Jersey fern – Anogramma leptophylla (3 populations at Tinui), Mazus novaezeelandiae subsp. novaezeelandiae (Admiral Road) and the leafless mistletoe Korthalsella salicornioides (several eastern Wairarapa sites).

Observations of rare and endangered plants may be sent to the Department of Conservation at the address below.

John Sawyer, Biodiversity – Technical Support Officer, Department of Conservation, Wellington Conservancy, P.O. Box 5086, Wellington.   Tel: (04) 470 8427, Fax: (04) 499 0077, E-mail: jsawyer@doc.govt.nz