Xeronema callistemon - from volcanic islands to a Wellington traffic island

Xeronema callistemon - Raupo Taranga or the Poor Knights Lily - is a dramatic plant endemic to a group of small islands off the east coast of Northland - the Poor Knights islands and Taranga (also known as Hen island).  Rising steeply from the water, the Poor Knights are remnants of a large volcano that erupted 10 to 11 million years ago.  They have been isolated from the mainland for thousands of years, and lie in an area of converging warm water currents.  This makes for a rich diversity of plant and animal life on land and in the water, and some unique species - like Xeronema callistemon. 

At home, Xeronema callistemon grows on the volcanic rock - plants are seen perching on sea cliffs and rocky outcrops as well as on rubble in forests or as epiphytes on pohutukawa trees.  Here in Wellington, Xeronema plants can be seen in rather different territory...

Contrasts and textures of a group of New Zealand native plants - the bright red flowering spikes of Xeronema callistemon, pale spikes of spiny Aciphylla, golden brown carex and coprosmas, fresh green kowhai leaves, rich green Scleranthus mounds, strappy leaves of a cordyline - all on a large traffic island by Courtenay Place in central Wellington (I wrote about it last year too - see "Midwinter glow"). 

Xeronema's clumps of yellow-green upright sword shaped leaves are impressive in their own right.  Just as well - these plants can be very slow (years!) to flower.

The rich red flowers appear in spring - large bristly bottlebrush shapes on a long (about a metre) stalk which bends at the top so that the flowers sit in a horizontal position - a good perch for nectar feeders.  They mature progressively - in the picture above you can see the orange pollen develop and become pale as the flower ages from front to back. 

The leaves grow into a thick clump, and one with lots of flowers is a delight to see.

The bees agree.  Mostly they are partially hidden as they burrow deep in the flowers to find the nectar (I presume) and get a bit tangled up in the process.  There are a number of bees at work on this plant.

But I caught this bumblebee as it came out, apparently for a quick breather, before diving back in.

"Surely an acquisition for the most discerning person" - Hebe diosmifolia

Hebe diosmifolia is a lovely New Zealand native evergreen shrub that flowers early and profusely in spring.  The leaves are narrow and dark, with paler undersides and tiny notches in the leaf edges.  Despite the name they don't look much like diosma leaves to me.  The small lavender flowers grow in dense clusters near the end of the branches.  They start opening in early spring and the flowers can cover the neat little shrubs through October and November - good for bees and butterflies. 

Muriel E. Fisher was a most inspiring and enthusiastic advocate for the use of native plants in our gardens, and her book "Gardening with New Zealand plants shrubs and trees" co-authored with Janet Watkins and E. Satchell (1975 edition) is an old friend - it has been very well-used, and was very precious when there was much less information around. 

While the quote in the title was her comment about Hebe diosmifolia, she was quite generous in bestowing such an affirmation on a number of native plants.  And I can't disagree with her.

Very big and tiny

On my way home along the south coast last night warm evening light was colouring the clearing clouds.  In the distance bright light was breaking through.  It was a welcome sight - it had been a dull grey day after a dramatic and intense storm.  Then I saw a white spot on the horizon. 

Lit up by the evening sun and looking as tiny as a child's toy was a cruise liner leaving Wellington.  These huge vessels dwarf the wharf where they berth and thousands of visitors check out the city for a day before they head on to their next destination.  This one, the Sea Princess, is number two of the 76 of these liners which will visit us before the end of the season in mid-May.  They might be huge in the human scale, but in the scale of the natural world we humans and our constructions are tiny.  Our impact is, unfortunately, not to scale.  

Not a vine, it's a bine! Wisteria unfurling

Here spring is a wonderful unfurling of fresh new plant growth repeatedly disturbed by stormy weather.  Sigh.  Recently, on a reasonably still and fine day, I saw this lovely wisteria beginning to flower.  A lot of the racemes (flower stalks) are still just in bud, but the light lavender flowers give the plant a soft appearance, like the foam on waves.  It could be Wisteria 'Caroline' which is an early flowering hybrid.   

It is growing on a picket fence in an older suburb, but flowering so profusely you can't see the fence or the long stems of the plant.  Wisteria is a climbing plant but not a vine.  It is a bine.  A vine climbs by sending out long stems or runners which grab hold of some kind of support using tendrils or suckers.  But a bine climbs by winding itself around a support.  Apparently most bines spiral in a counterclockwise direction.  And while it is said that Japanese wisterias grow in a clockwise direction, distinguishing them from Chinese wisterias, most wisterias grown in gardens are hybrids.  This one looked as if it was growing counterclockwise, but I am not sure.  Who cares - it is another delight of spring. 

I can't really say that is so for this sight...

Today's southerly front approaching off Wellington's south coast.  The sea is still but the foaming rather lavender coloured clouds are to me a bit reminiscent of the wisteria.  And the storms do have their own, if much more dramatic, beauty.

More from Otari - crimson rata at the Cockayne Lookout

Leonard Cockayne was an important early botanist in New Zealand whose work included studies of our native vegetation.  One of the sites honouring his work is the Cockayne Lookout.  On a terrace above a steep bank, its view covers some of the Otari Native Botanic Garden plant collections and the Wilton's Bush Reserve with its stand of original forest and extensive areas of regenerating native bush.

The tall walls of the lookout and terrace are clothed by the climbing crimson rata (Metrosideros carminea) which is a forest liane, or vine.  It grows vigorously - 15 metres or more, up tree trunks and cliffs, and it spreads in the way ivy does by clinging to rough surfaces.  So it can make dense cover as seen here, over the whole surface of these substantial walls.  Now in full spring flower, I think it is like a crimson cloak with a thick red fringe at the top.

The flowers have a starry appearance with their long red stamens topped by golden pollen, and nectar-filled yellow centres.  Before they had all opened it was easier to see the individual flowers.

This photo, taken ten days earlier, shows the tight unfurled buds and the little glossy green leaves before they were obscured by the sheer profusion of fully open flowers.

The flowering of the golden kowhai is coming to an end as the crimson rata is coming into flower.  It is much appreciated by nectar loving birds and insects, and it is not hard to see why it is popular with humans too, as a most decorative garden plant.