TRIP REPORT : Mount Victoria, Wellington City

1 September 2007

Maritime pine (Pinus muricata)

Female cones and leaves of Pinus radiata (left) and P. muricata. Photos: Leon Perrie.

Bay tree (Laurus nobilis). Photo: Leon Perrie.

Eleven BotSoccers and others completed a three-hour circuit on the city-flank of Mount Victoria.   Beginning at the summit car-park, we descended (indirectly) to the grassed area above Majoribanks Street.   From here we made our way, with a couple of detours, via the city-Hataitai walkway up to Alexandra Road, along which we returned to the car-park.

Mount Victoria would have been covered in coastal broadleaved forest, but now pines, macrocarpa, and eucalypts dominate the canopy.   The two common pines are the three-needled, large-coned monterey pine (Pinus radiata) and the two-needled, smallerconed bishop pine (P. muricata), and we learnt to distinguish the two, even at a distance.   The seedlings we saw were three-needled; bishop pine is not recorded as naturalised in Wellington (1, 2).   We saw single adult individuals of two other pine species.   One was later identified as maritime pine (P. pinaster), while we could not reach leaves or cones of the other, but it had distinctive mottled bark, somewhat reminiscent of matai.

Several Eucalyptus species are present, but we could identify only one: E. leucoxylon, popular with tui on the hillside above Majoribanks Street.

Exotic plants are also present under the canopy, including ‘gems’ such as climbing asparagus (Asparagus scandens), old man’s beard (Clematis vitalba), wandering willie (Tradescantia fluminensis), elaeagnus (Elaeagnus ×reflexa), holly (Ilex aquifolium), hazel pomaderris (Pomaderris aspera), willow-leaved hakea (Hakea salicifolia), Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica), periwinkle (Vinca major), broom (Cytisus scoparius), Teline spp., and boneseed (Chrysanthemoides monilifera).   Saplings of bay tree (Laurus nobilis) were common above Pirie Street; this species is not recorded for Wellington by (1), but is by (2).   We spotted two species of Viburnum, V. tinus and V. japonicum.   The former is listed only from the South Island by (1), while the latter was not listed at all by (1), but has recently been recorded as naturalised in the Waitakere Ranges (Ewen Cameron, pers. com.).   Adults of both species are scattered widely around Mount Victoria, but seedlings were not seen.

Species native to New Zealand, but not to Wellington, were also prominent, particularly karo (Pittosporum crassifolium and P. ralphii), houhere (Hoheria populnea), karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus), and Pseudopanax crassifolius × lessonii.   The morphologies in the latter hybrid swarm were impressively diverse.   Interestingly, although we passed several adults, there was little evidence of regeneration by pohutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa).

Even for species native to Wellington, such as lemonwood / tarata (Pittosporum eugenioides), kohuhu (P. tenuifolium), akeake (Dodonaea viscosa), and five-finger (Pseudopanax arboreus), we pondered their ultimate origins: remnants from the original Mount Victoria forest, colonists from remnants elsewhere in Wellington, or escapees from neighbouring gardens?   How could we ever tell?   We also hoped that those groups undertaking revegetation plantings were keeping detailed records.   If not, distinguishing the genuine locals from the introductions will only get murkier.   Perhaps this is something the council could coordinate, if it is not already.

Highlights amongst the native species included five Asplenium species (A. appendiculatum subsp. maritimum, A. flabellifolium, A. flaccidum, A. hookerianum var. colensoi and var. hookerianum, and A. oblongifolium) together on one trackside bank, while A. gracillimum was sighted elsewhere.   Asplenium appendiculatum subsp. appendiculatum might also be present, which, if confirmed, would make this site scientifically important, as the two subspecies of A. appendiculatum are otherwise not known (at least by me) to occur together.   Another bank holds a good population of rasp fern (Doodia australis), which is uncommon around Wellington.   A juvenile Cyathea cunninghamii amongst a grove of C. medullaris was conveniently at ground level to enable close examination.   An abundant population of Melicytus crassifolius was encountered in one gully, although, as may be emblematic of the intertwining of native and exotic vegetation on Mount Victoria, it was being smothered by climbing asparagus, ivy (Hedera helix), periwinkle, and Japanese honeysuckle.

Climbing asparagus smothering Melicytus crassifolius. Photo: Leon Perrie.

Thank you to Barry Sneddon and Ewen Cameron for assistance with some identifications.

Participants :   Gavin Dench, Trish Godfrey, Peter Graham, Bryan Halliday, Chris Hopkins, Chris Horne, Barbara Mitcalfe, Leon Perrie (coleader / scribe), Lara Shepherd (coleader), Sunita Singh.

Leon Perrie

(1) Webb CJ, Sykes WR, Garnock-Jones PJ. 1988.   Flora of New Zealand, Volume IV.
(2) McAlpine K, Sawyer J. 2003.   Pest Plant Atlas.   Wellington Conservancy excluding the Chatham Islands.   Volume 2.