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.

Winter-weathered wings - a Yellow Admiral butterfly

A happy sight - a Yellow Admiral butterfly (Kahukowhai in Maori) feeding on the blue flowers of Echium candicans.  It is just spring but the wings of this individual look worn and weathered - the Yellow Admiral are quite long-lived butterflies and some overwinter, as I imagine this one has. 

The large spot on the wings is usually yellow - hence the name - but this one looked white to me, maybe bleached by weathering.  The Yellow Admiral (Vanessa itea) is a New Zealand native also found in Australia, Lord Howe and Norfolk Islands.  It is a strong flier, thought to often make the crossing between Australia and New Zealand over the Tasman Sea. 

This one was taking its time on a rather wind-flattened flowering stalk, visiting the little blue flowers and having a good drink with its long black tongue.  So I was able to get close up.

Showing the rather hairy face and body and warm colours of the upper wings - the under wings are a duller and more intricate pattern, but the position and lighting meant that they cannot be seen in these photos.

While I have plenty of nectar bearing flowers in my garden, providing food for the butterflies, I don't have the food that is required by their caterpillars - native or introduced nettle plants.  Not the most welcome addition to a garden!  But people are planting them to help restore the populations of Yellow Admirals, which are under threat from introduced wasps, insecticides, loss of habitat - the usual suspects.  Perhaps I had better source some nettles...

Fresh colours of spring

To me, the fresh new foliage of deciduous trees is one of the delights of spring.  In Hataitai Park there is a mixture of exotic and native trees and together they make a particularly lovely display - soft clouds of emerging leaves in bright green and amber contrast with the dark green evergreens and slender silvery shapes of the trunks and branches.

This park adjoins Wellington's Town Belt so is part of this precious swathe of green which provides a setting for sporting venues and casual recreational activities, and even for filming - a segment in the first film of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was filmed in the Town Belt.

Plant awareness problems - a gruesome sight

Oh dear.  What were they thinking?  I still get a shock when I see plants treated like this.

"Landscaping" seen outside a local fast food outlet - ranks of Astelia chathamica planted way too closely to start with, then later chopped back into stumpy clumps.

Astelia chathamica is a popular garden plant, often described as "architectural" because of the drama of its long flax-like leaves with their gorgeous silvery sheen, grouped in a large imposing clump.  Alas, it is often planted when still small, a tidy fan of silver and soft green.  And we tend to plant allowing for things as they are, not planning adequately for what they will grow into.  I have certainly made that mistake. 

If the initial planting is made to fill the space in a pleasing way, then things will likely get too crowded quite quickly as the plants grow.  Some plants will have to be removed to make room to allow those that remain to grow naturally.  Pruning - cutting plants so they grow more as we want them to - is another way of managing plant growth.  But if we want healthy and happy plants, then planting and pruning should take account of how the plant grows. 

This is what Astelia chathamica, given the chance, will grow to look like - a more upright one...

Or a more spreading one...

They are big, bold, and eye-catching.  These plants are growing in the Otari Native Botanic Garden in Wellington.  They are in mixed plantings and take centre stage. 

The leaves are long, dramatic, elegant, and somewhat messy.  Cutting them back stops them from growing and they will ever be stumps - I think of them as being like partially amputated arms.  If allowed, new leaves will grow from the base, and look very odd as they straggle above their chopped back predecessors.  What a mess - and I am guessing that the chopping back was an attempt to "tidy" them!

I have a theory that many people don't even think of plants as living things, let alone recognise them as critical for our survival.  And not noticing how things grow leads to mistakes like this kind of pruning.  I regard this kind of mutilation as a gruesome sight, and a reminder of how mindless we can be.  While in this case it is really just an aesthetic issue, such mindlessness can actually be devastating for the living world around us.

Ephemeral beauty - the spring blossom of Prunus 'Awanui'

The blush pink blossom of Prunus 'Awanui' is out at present, defying the changeable weather and delighting me with its ephemeral beauty - rather romanticised by my treatment of this image.

This lovely flowering cherry was selected by New Zealander Keith Adams who found it amongst a collection of cherries he had planted on his land.  At the time he ran a nursery, and the property was by Awanui Street in New Plymouth, hence the name.  It seems to be a robust tree, and has quite horizontal branches, giving it a graceful appearance.  It is cloaked with flowers well before the leaves appear.  There is a lightness about the tree in blossom even though the flowering is profuse. 

As the linked article describes, Keith Adams has lived a very full and interesting life.  In contrast to the delicacy of the cherry blossom he discovered is the image of his expeditions to find tropical rhododendrons (Vireyas) in dense jungles.  This reflected his love of the plants and, it would seem, his adventurous nature.  In the article he is described as asserting a principled attitude to collecting - taking seed or cuttings only and definitely not taking the plant.  Admirable, I think.  Desecration of plant populations has been a legacy of some plant collectors.

For me the pleasure of seeing this lovely tree is somehow enhanced by the unexpected associations conjured up by reading about its discoverer.

Red alert - Kaka beak (Clianthus) - brilliant and endangered

Spring is such a time of contrasts.  It has been wet, windy and grey for a couple of days but when I visited Otari at the beginning of the week it was bright and colourful - and there was an arresting sight.

Along a trellis fence, a sprawling shrub of Kaka beak (Clianthus, or Kowhai ngutukaka in Maori) was covered with dangling clusters of its distinctive bright red flowers.  Their claw-like shape has been likened to the beak of a parrot, and the kaka is a native parrot - hence the name.

Appreciated as a garden plant, it has become very endangered in the wild - introduced plants and animals compete with it and consume it.

Of the two species, in the wild C. puniceus was found only on Moturemu Island on the Kaipara Harbour, and C. maximus was found mostly around Lake Waikaremoana.  The number of C. maximus plants was down to 153 in 2005! 

The kaka beak plant has been the focus of conservation efforts.  Plants were fenced to protect them from browsing animals and replanting was undertaken.  Local hapu, with the Department of Conservation, established Nga Tipu a Tane ki Waikaremoana nursery at Te Kura o Waikaremoana School, in the Lake Waikaremoana area.  Along the East Cape local schools were involved in roadside planting.  Animal repellant sprays were developed and used to protect plants.  Fortunately it produces seed which is long-lived, germinating when land where it has fallen is disturbed.  It also copes with poor soil - as a member of the legume family it can fix nitrogen from the atmosphere, via the symbiotic root bacteria within the root nodules, producing nitrogen compounds that help the plant to grow.

I don't know what the situation is today, but DoC information suggests that kaka beak is still growing on Moturemu Island in the Kaipara harbour, and at several sites on the East Cape, in Te Urewera National Park, near Wairoa, and in Boundary Stream Mainland Island in Hawkes Bay. 

When we humans jeopardise the future of living things which we can see and appreciate, we can be reminded of our impact.  That is much more difficult if the endangered plant or animal is shy or subtle - and in New Zealand we have a great many in that situation.  So this plant is something of a conservation alert for us all, in its eye-catching brilliance.