NATURE NOTES

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 73, 30 March 1929, Page 13

NATURE NOTES

NEW ZEALAND PLANTS

LILIES AMD MISTLETOES

(By R. H. D. Stidolph, K.A.0.U.)

A very pretty little plant, not growing moro than several inches in height, with oblong or linear-oblong leaves from half an inch to a little ovor an inch in length, and bearing solitary white flowers, sometimes three-quarters of an mcL across, never fails tfe attract attention on the Mount Holdsworth track, where it runs through the bush in its lower parts. This plant is a member of the lily family, and. is known as Enargea parviflora. On a recent visit to Mount Holdsworth ths track sides were attractively adorned ia many,places with the pretty little flowers of this species. It is not uncommon in mountain forests in New Zea-' land, from Cape Colville and the Thames goldfields southwards. It occurs from sea-level to an altitude of 3500 feet, and is known to the Maoris as puwatawata. The flowering season extends from November to February. Two other species of the same genus are found' in Chile. Members of tho lily family found in New Zealand offer good examples of the variation of growth and habitat occurring in the same family. Few peoplo unacquainted with botany, for instance, would connect the little Enargea previously referred to with.the well-known supplejack, or the familiar cabbage trees as being members of the same family. Other New Zealand lilies include the astelias, Phormium tenax, the pretty rock lilies, and the Bulbinellow.

On the occasion of a visit to Mount Holdsworth, a peak of the Tasman Eangc, towards the end of last January, the mountain track was peppered, at intervals with the scarlet,' fallen petals of a species of mistletoe. There are eleven species, belonging to five genera, found in Now Zealand, while the family itself comprises sbino twentyone genera and 525' species, chiefly found in tropical or warm regions of both hemispheres, there being comparatively few in the temperate zones. Only one- of the New Zealand genera, Tupeia, is endemic, but the species themselves are not found elsewhere, at least in the case of four genera. As is well known, the mistletoes are parasitic or semi-parasitic shrubs, which, with few exceptions, send out processes which penetrate into the woody tissues of their hosts and have a greatly reduced stem structure and leaf area. The most prominent of the New Zealand species are the four belonging . to the genus Elytranthe, which contains altogether from seventy to eighty species, distributed from India to . Malaya, Eastern Polynesia, Australia, and New Zealand. Three of these four species bear scarlet, bright red, or reddish flowers, and the remaining one orange-yellow flowers. The one known, as E Colensoi, with largo scarlet flowers up to two inches in length, is usually parasitic on Nothofagus or beech trees, but it has also been recorded on Pittosporum and the rata. Another species, E. Tetrapetala, which is not uncommon from about Auckland southwards, is usually parasitic on beech trees in the south and in the north on so-called New Zealand lilac, Quintinia serrata, known to the Maoris as kumarahou. It is this species of mistletoe which has been described as lighting up the gloomy forest of beech trees with immense masses of scarlet flowers, glowing like jewels among the dark green leaves of the beech. Another .species, known as E. Adamsii, also has large flowers, reddish, but more or less tinged with yellowish green, but it is confined in its distribution, being reported from Great Barrier Island, on Capo Colville, the Thames goldfields, and at Hunua. This species is parastie on Coprosma, ffilyrsine, and Melico'pe. The remaining member'of the genus, E. Flavida, with smaller, orange-yellow flowers, is not uncommon in beech forests from the East Cape, Mount Ruapehu, and Mount Egnwmt southwards.

Other genera of tho mistletoe family occurring in the Dominion, include Loranthus, a largo genus of about 1' 350 species, but represented in . New Zealand by one endemic species—L. lnicranthus. This plant is abundant in lowland districts throughout the North and South Islands, and Stewart Island, from sea level to 2000 feet. It is at •once distinguished by its small green flowers. It is parasitic om Coprosma, Melicope, manuka, etc. It is also reported on pear and plum trees. A widely diffused tropical genus, Phrygilauthus, is somewhat doubtfully represented in New Zealand by two endemic species, of which one is now unknown to New Zealand botanists, and the other is based on a single specimen now in Kcw Herbarium, and collected, somewhere- in the North Island. Tupeia Antarctica, belonging to. an endemic genus of one species,: has only one root. Its flowers are small, green-ish-yellow in colour, but often very abundantly produced. This species is not uncommon in wooded districts throughout the North and South Islands, growing up to an altitude of 3000 feet. This plant is sometimes doubly parasitic. Many years ago it. was recorded as parasitic on Elytranthe, growing on a beech. More recently it was found growing on another species of mistletoe, which in its turn was parasitic on the introduced hawthorn. The remaining species occurring in the Dominion are very small' leafless plants, not more than • six inches high, members of the genus Korthalsella. • All these species have very minute flowers. One is usually parasitic on'manuka, but is also seen on the snowberry and grass trees. Another, also with minute flowers, occurs on the kowhai, Melicope, myrtle ratas, Coprosma, aud other suchlike plants. .: