RECLOTHING HILLS

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 31, 5 August 1939, Page 24

RECLOTHING HILLS

REGENERATION OF NATIVE

PLANTS

"It is a popular misconception that introduced plants, particularly those regarded as weeds, will easily supplant the native plants, even in their native habitat," states a clause in a recent circular dealing with New Zealand trees and shrubs sent to head teachers in its district by the Wellington Education Board.

"This is only partially correct. If the bush is protected from droughts, from axe and fire, from grazing stock, including pigs, goats, and deer, it will, in time, regenerate itself. At present the gorse and broom-covered hills bounding the Hurt Valley are harbouring hundreds of thousands of young native plants which would in time, if not subject to man's interference, particularly the ravages, of fire, clothe the hills again with native bush such as originally covered them. Similarly, in the Rotorua district, over great areas which have never carried any natural growth but fern since they were overwhelmed by deep layers of pumice dust, a strong growth of native plants has appeared since the Government plantations of exotic trees have been planted. Our native plants are the survivors of thousands of generations of plants, which, through adaptation to their environment, proved their fitness to survive under the conditions existing up to the time of European settlement. They are still capable of asserting their fitness for survival."

Dealing with the Nature-study aspec-, the circular recommended that the children should find for themselves instances of the natural trend towards regeneration. From actual observations, they could set out the successive stages of regeneration, from manuka to fern, then secondary forest trees such as rangiora, coprosmas, and pittosporums, to types of virgin forest such as totara, beech, and tawa, which, according to climatic and geographical conditions, would eventually become the dominant bush.