Botanical sights of N. Canterbury coast

Press, 31 December 1982, Page 25

Botanical sights of N. Canterbury coast

By

DERRICK ROONEY

Before they get to Canterbury. northerners travelling down by rail will get a touch of nostalgia if they look seawards as the train passes the cliffs and bluffs south of the Clarence River. Here, on the Haumuri Bluff, the Reinga Lily. Arthropodium cirrhatum" reaches its southern limit, and from the train windows you can see large plants flowering freely.

There is no other easy way to see them, because to get there on foot would necessitate a walk of many miles from the main road. Indications are that this plant was once much more widely distributed in the South" Island. Though an early report of its growing on Banks Peninsula is on record, it is now believed to be extinct in Canterbury, but who knows? The coastal cliffs south of the Clarence River have been sporadically botanised but many rarities may be awaiting "discovery there — in the last few years several interesting finds have been made, including Freycinetia bankii, the kiekie. or New Zealand screwpine.

which has edible fruit. This plant occurs in the wetter western forests throughout the length of the country but the North Canterbury report is the only one from the east coast.

Several of our most handsome and familiar garden shrubs grow wild on the dryish hills between t Kaikoura and central Canter- - bury, and it is interesting to see them au naturel. Hebe hulkeana. the New Zealand lilac, is one of the best known, and occurs in Marlborough and the far north of Canterbury. Coastal plants have the largest inflorescences but inland botanisers might be lucky enough to find one of the rare white forms, or even the long-sought pink form.

Growing with it in the rupestral scrub communities on the coast and inland you will find plants of the famous Marlborough daisy. Pachystegia insignis, one of the finest garden shrubs in the

flora and one of our most handsome wild plants, also. But don't try digging up a pachystegia from the wild — it is unlikely to survive. Cuttings are "very difficult, too., but fresh seed germinates easily and grows to flowering size in three or four vears.

Pachystegia insignis is listed in the Flora of New Zealand as a monotypic genus — with only a single species and one variety — but recent work by the Botany Division of the D.S.I.R. suggests that the group contains at least five entities, of which probably three are good species. One of these is a red-leaved pachystegia found growing at one site in Marlborough (still secret) and not yet named. Eventually the D.S.I.R. is likely to release propagating material of this shrub to the nursery trade, and when it does come out it will cause quite a stir. It is proving quite winterhardy in my very frosty garden, and like all the pa-

chystegias is highly drought resistant.

The large Kaikoura form of the pachystegia is largely confined to "the coast south of the Conway River but a more interesting variety can be seen in rocky and "steep places alongside the inland road south of the river, which marks the boundary between Canterbury anil Marlborough.

The inland pachystegia is a smaller and neater bush than the coastal forms but has large and attractive white flowers. No doubt in due course it will be pronounced a species in its own right, but in the meantime it must be called P. insignis like all the others. It is not to be confused with P. insignis var. minor, listed in the Flora — the latter comes from north of Kaikoura. The distribution of the inland pachystegia is not yet fully mapped in the ranges stretching over to Molesworth and that might be an interesting summer tramp for some keen amateur botahiser. Look for it on steep, very old, exposed faces where the soil has been com-

pacted for millenia. North Canterbury is the home of the prostrate kowhai and Senecio monroi, two unusual rupestral shrubs which often grow together in the wild — there’s a hint for home landscapers. You find them on the toughest sites. S. monroi has olive-drab crenellated leaves, and bright yellow flowers, and perhaps because it occupies the sites which are inhospitable to other plants, it is often found

as very knobbly, stunted bushes. This is one of the shrubs which look better in cultivation than in the wild. So is the prostrate kOwhai. which occurs on many hillsides in dense cushions so hard you can bounce on them, but shoots up very quickly to two metres in cultivation. Often growing with these is a genuine North Canterburyite. Hebe raoulii. which is distinguished from H. hulk-

eana by its spoon-shaped leaves, smaller stature, and pink flowers. Some forms are larger than others, but all are smaller than H. hulkeana. In cultivation it has hybridised with both Hebe hulkeana and H. lavaudiana. which takes their place among the rock outcrops on Banks Peninsula. As the hybrids are better garden plants, it is best to stick to them, and leave the wildlings in situ.