TRIP REPORT : Wellington Botanic Garden native forest

 Saturday :   6 August 2005

Kunzea ericoides.   Illustration by Eleanor Burton.

Twenty-four people met at the Founders’ Entrance on a beautiful morning to botanise the five remnants which were the topic of Chris and Barbara’s talk on 18 July.   After a briefing about the botanical and historical significance of the remnants and the need to keep to the tracks to avoid damage to seedlings, we visited Salamanca Slope remnant, south of the Begonia House.   Original kanuka are thriving, but the only kamahi stand in the Garden there is declining, probably because of increasingly dry conditions.   Other features included a spiralling, 12 cm diameter kohia, Passiflora tetrandra, at least 30 m long, and kohekohe in late flower.

As we walked to the next remnant, Stable Gully / Druid Hill, Sally spotted a second kahikatea seedling near the one listed in Barbara and Chris’s Paper, Shortly after, we noted how far the Camellia Garden has encroached on this remnant, and discussed the poor conditions of the parsely-foliaged, young northern rata.   In Stable Gully we saw nikau, (a species not recorded by Buchanan in 1875), Cyathea cunninghamii / gully tree fern, and the old hinau which is thought to be original.

Next came Australian Garden / Play Area, a narrow remnant with a very mixed native-exotic composition: regenerating totara and kohekohe under kanuka and manuka; planted, non-Wellington native species such as puriri, (also regenerating), and exotics such as large old rhododendrons reaching the canopy.   Lower down in the gully we noted a large pukatea surrounded by mostly exotic plantings including Gunnera tinctoria, a handsome pest plant.   Near Mamaku Way we inspected the only matai, (a sapling), known in the Garden, and admired the large, original, black maire whose progeny staff member Peter Tijsen has propagated for planting in the other Garden remnants.

In Cable Car remnant we saw the enormous, exotic conifers towering over the vegetation, but thankfully they are to be removed.   On the True Left of the gully, both native and exotic species are regenerating densely, particularly Pittosporum ralphii, a non-Wellington species.   Trackside there are several tall, original kanuka, and in the gully, one Dicksonia fibrosa under a kohekohe canopy.

Our final remnant was Glen Slope, the moistest, steepest Garden remnant, the only place where Barbara and Chris found the filmy fern Adiantum viridescens, (sparse in Wellington region), and kiekie, neither of which species was recorded by Buchanan.   Emergent in this remnant is a large, northern rata in good health, protected by possum bait stations nearby, which people were interested to see.

Participants : Bev Abbott, Annadel Boush, Barbara Clark, Mike Crozier, Barry Dent, Sue Freitag, Ian and Jill Goodwin, Bryan Halliday, Edith Hodgen, Chris Horne (co-leader), Nikki Lloyd, Stephen Lungley, Alena-Rose Machin, Sally Marx, Barbara Mitcalfe (co-leader), Donella Moss, Mick Parsons, Merrin Pearse, Bernie Salmon, Sunita Singh, Louise Taylor, Julia White, Cathy Wylie.