COMMON PLANTS

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31168, 19 September 1966, Page 23

COMMON PLANTS

Botanical Puzzles There was still a great deal to be found out about even the most common plants, Dr. L. Moore, of the D.S.I.R. Botany Division, told members of the Forest and Bird Protection Society at the Museum Lecture Theatre. A variety of wild plants, many of them found in the northern half of the South Island, were illustrated with slides by Dr. Moore. These ranged from the well-known toi toi and cabbage trees to wild forest orchids and water ferns. There were many puzzles on fertility, classification, and associated matters concerned with these plants, Dr. Moore said. An example was the reproduction pattern of the common red water fern. At present it appeared that there few fertile plants were found in large samples. These could be found one day, and there could be no trace in the same patch the next day. Other puzzles were found in two types of flower appearing on one plant and why plants which were known to grow only by the sea were discovered in isolated instances in mountain regions.

Some plants differed only in the parts not showing.