A SAND DUNE STRUGGLER

Auckland Star, Volume LXIX, Issue 286, 3 December 1938, Page 7 (Supplement)

A SAND DUNE STRUGGLER

Spinifex And Its Surroundings

FERTILITY and sand dunes yor may tliii.k would be far apart, to look at the vast, rolling grey dunes of the West Coast, which separate the sea from the tall cool bush, or, as in most cases, from the windswept scrub lands and hills; and yet quite a large variety of plants love to grow in the salt, loose 'sand, which looks such a disagreeable host, and is, for during winter it offers very little protection from the lashing fury of a gale and repeated doses of spray, and in summer gives its tenants no shade

8y... Betty Molesworth

f 'in the boiling rays of a mid-day Kim. However, there are, according to that very famous New Zealand botanist, Dr. Cockayne, about 150 species of plants which are willing to face all the many trials of a Band dune life; and yet, I wonder how many of you could remember any plants which peeped from the sand when you tumbled about in it during your last day at the beach? There are several types of plants. We can put them roughly into three clarets—there are the short bushy j shrubs and prostrate shrubs, then creeping plants, and, lastly, grass-likp plants and grasses. '

A Sand Binding Plant. One of these of the latter class, most common on our east and west coast beaches of the north, is most interesting, and that is wawatai (Spinifex hirsutus). When looking at those long stretches of dull grey sand on the West Coast one may well wonder how any plant would be brave enough to devote enough energy into making a comfortable home there, yet wawatai grows abundantly, and even thrives, 0:1 the ever-shifting sand. All over the dunes and groves, in dense patches sometimes, others more strag« gling, further apart plants, winding about clumps of orange-leaved pingao, or shrubby aute-taranga. Climbing over the dunes as it does, makes wawatai a valuable plant for binding the restless sandhills, for from the main plant, or perhaps it could be called "head office," it sends out long trailing feelers, and they discover new ground, settle there, and send roots down exploring, thus forming another plant, making it more firm and more secure. Spinifex leaves, often up to two feet long, are heavy and very tough —that is easily proved by trying to pull one out, for they seem able to withstand most ardent tugs, only bringing the whole plant up when one succeeds. Being so strong they are w-ell adapted to stand the scorching rays of the summer sun, together with strong reflection from the sand, or else heavy cold in the icv winter nights, two extremes which would try the patience of the sturdiest of plants; so Nature, for further provior protection of this queerliving plant, has clothed it in dense silky hairs. They can be plainly

seen, especially on tlie leaves, thus giving it the common name of "silvery sand grass." Buried Alive. Often when the roving restless sand, spurred no move more quickly by a scurrying wind, is piled on top this plant, it is quite buried alive, but, not a bit daunted, in a short while up Spinifex peeps, showing at first the tips of its silvery leaves, but soon out it grows again, gaining control of the sand —once more sending long creeping stems to investigate new ground. If you could see those dunes covered with wawatai now, you would find not only its heavy "pointed leaves above the sand, but probably you would notice many queer-looking spikes. They are the flower clusters, well adapted to their surroundings. No fragile petals do these grass ilowers produce; each is minute and well protected, and so suffers little from battering by gusts of sand. The male flowers, which grow on separate plants from the females, are smaller and compactly grouped. At present they are crowned with masses of red-orange pollen in pendant anthers. The Fruits Disperse. The female spikes are repulsivelooking with their long, slender spines, sometimes o\er six. inches long. They seem to be evil-looking and hard, yet are much softer than they appear. At the base of each of the many long spikes in this globose head are the undeveloped seeds, which in late summer become ripe, and here Nature has given wawatai a rollicking way to distribute her seed. Perhaps you have seen one in summertime, parted from its parent plant, scurrying along the beach before a playful breeze, on and on, and faster and faster they go, often ending up in tragedy on. a barren rock, or°perhaps more often drifting along the coast until washed up on another beach, to start the race again, until

i they would find a place in tlie =and, where their fertile seeds would "terminate. The care-free Maori. whenever he ?aw one of these spike?, answered its challenge by chasing it. and in the days when he had his pa not far from the wind-lashed sea. often a lithe, dusky form could be seen chasing along the hard beach, behind a fast-moving wawatai spike, until it bounced into the ever-eager arms of the sea, beyond the Maori's reach. Silvery sand grass roots are well below the surface, fox. as well as having to find food, each time the sand drifts up, the jriant grows higher, to gain light and air, so leaving a long creeping- underground stem which carries food in liquid form from the roots to the leaves, and they also help to gain food by watch in trior every drop of moisture which may fall on its leaves. They are kept for food, and to prevent moisture escaping by being dried up, the leaves have developed a thick layer on the outside, called a cuticle. " This can only be seen under a microscope. Large Family. Wawatai belongs to one of the largest families of plants in the world. I think you will recognise a few of the more important cousins: sugar cane, from where we iret our household sugar, is a good example; then there are some of which we eat nearly every day—barley, rice, wheat and maize. Paspalum is one of its very closest relations. In the South Island it is not 60 common, but Christchurch children may find it on their beaches, for it has been found there, but only in small patches. Xorth Island children, however, cannot miss ft, for it is abundant. Next time you go to the beach for a picnic and sit on a dune surrounded by winding stems of spinifex, have a look about and count how many other plants are brave enough to live m that inhospitable land. I think you will be surprised.