PLANTS FOR "THE CRANNIED WALL"

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 144, 19 June 1937, Page 8

PLANTS FOR "THE CRANNIED WALL"

Steep clay faces are so common in Wellington suburban streets that the zeal of Wellington Beautifying Society workers in planting some of them is of civic importance. Especially interesting is their work with pohutukawas, because this locally acclimatised tree, originally confined to northern New Zealand, has demonstrated a remarkable ability to germinate on the steepest Wellington banks by means of dropped or wind-borne seed. Thus pohutukawas tend to colonise by seed in just those steep positions (coastal cliffs are their habitat in the north) where it is difficult in Wellington for the horticulturist to establish seedlings. In many steep clay faces any interference with the surface is -undesirable, because even

moderate excavation for tree-plant-ing might impair stability of the) face; but the very fine seed of pohutukawas and ratas and others of that clan can lodge in a cranny and there germinate. Examples may be seen on clay faces in Sydney Street, Upland Road, and many suburban streets; in at least one place a pohutukawa grows from a weep-hole in a brick wall. The hostile factors include frost, removal by covetous individuals, and indiscriminate destruction when steep faces are being cleared of growth. Where a hole can be dug to plant a pohutukawa, the society's workers are establishing not only the trees they see, but also potential future tree-children, selfsown from parent trees in desirable sites on still steeper cliffs. This hope gives their planting an additional value, and points the way to experimentation with other species.