The Botany of Auckland

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22582, 21 November 1936, Page 15 (Supplement)

The Botany of Auckland

No. X.Rangitoto Island of And Flo TO those of \is who have our roots in the land, Rangitoto is very precious. The homing 'Aucklamler finds it the most stirring of landmarks, while the root-bound city-dweller forever turns to it with delimit in its comforting presence. In the appeal of its height, its serenity, and its beatify of colour and form, it is surely unique. It is almost fi perfect circle, lazily fretted by the sea, from which it rose naked and plowing like Aphrodite of old, although during the centuries the winds and the birds have brought to it the scented veil of green leaves and nectar-rich flowers. The Maori did not see it emerge, but he seemed to know that it was youthful. and he gave it the name of Rangitoto. that suggests the flaring skies of an eruption, but refers instead to the colour of the lava, like dark, congealing blood. Their story of its origin lias a Hawaikian flavour. In the days of the wild-eyed, wild-haired tipua a family quarrelled over a poorly-woven garment. The giant-like husband cursed everyone, rashly including Mahuika, goddess of lire, who sent an upheaval to remove their mountain and punish them all. Maori History They sank, forming craters at Shoal J3nv and Northcote, while Pnpukenioana came into being as a lake as Bangitoto shot out of the sea. On the three peaks stand the exiles weeping always 011 misty days for the home across the channel of Peretu, and for the children turned to stone in it. This is the myth: Maori history tells that the island was a Uahui-kaka (parrot reserve) of To Peretu, the mana of whose two lizards guarded it for many years. Later it was used as a burial place, and as a look-out in time of war, but as it had few birds and no soil it was little disturbed, its jagged

surface being cruel even to the horniest savage feel. Thus the development of tho plantcover of lava and summit scoria knew no check from the Maori. It was only alter the sale nt "£ls the lot" by Nga Tai to "the Queen of England and her heirs and successors for ever," and in spite of the establishment of ,a Domain Board in 1890, that fires spread, privately-owned shacks rose 011 this "inalienable reserve," weeds followed both, and perhaps most serious

Specially Written for the NEW ZEALAND HERALD By PROFESSOR ARNOLD WALL and LUCY M. CRANWELL, M.A.

of all, fallow deer, wallaby and opossum were allowed to stuff themselves with plants of exquisite beauty, in a setting more inspiring than that of any of the man-made conservatories of the world. Abundant Pohutukawa Botanieallv, Rangitoto is one of our most important areas, not because of the number of species to be found there, nor of the rarity of any but one of them, but because it shows every stage from the colonisation of raw lava to the formation of closed forest of a type to bo matched nowhere else in New Zealand. In the densest cover there is a bewildering tangle of trunks and interwoven silvery-leaved astelia, and hero the trees are usually only ten to twenty feet high, but in parts, especially at the junction of the steep scoria cone with the gently sloping lava-streams, there are aisles of tall, erect rewarewa, mahoe, mapau (its trunk pitchy black with fungus), and magnificent pohutukawa, from one to two feet in diameter.

Here one could ride with ease, but this openness has been induced by the disastrous feeding of wallaby on tho mucilaginous shoots of Astelia Banksii, the main floor-plant. In the shade of the pohutukawa, which is easily the most abundant tree, one can hardly believe that there has ever been such turmoil as to make tho island as Hochstetter wrote, "one of the most remarkable volcanic districts of the earth." A few yards' scramble, however, invariably precipitates one

into the open and it will bo seen that the line between scrub and "rockmeadow" is as sharp as if marked with a knife. Clone arc the tender ferns and the massive astelias: all appears barren over acres of black or purplish lava smouldering sullenly in the sunshine. One might be on Krakatoa, or thrown back over five hundred years in the history of this island. Yet in such places is being enacted the saga of plant-endeavour, beginning with microscopic gelatinous algae, and soft lichens and mosses, all damp and fresh in the morning dews, but as brittle as glass long before noon. They are the first soil-formers. 011 their remains grow tiny "walking-ferns" (Aspleniuin flabellifoliuni), daintily picking their way round the twisted blocks; rootless tufts of the primitive Psilotum. related to the lyeopods, and nowhere common in New Zealand except 011 Rangitoto; dewy stems of the sundew and colonies of little orchids, few of which are taken in at the first glance. Luxuriant Kidney Ferns Chance allows pohutukawa, rata and puka to germinate and establish themselves at last, and so a community of tall shade-giving plants will grow up, but for some reason these larger patches have so far been left bare. Again colonies of black-backed gulls may kill whole groves, and so the cycle will begin all over again. Ihe visitor's first feeling, whether he is repelled or attracted, is one of wonder that anything should grow here at all. in this streamless wilderness. Next he will be struck by the vigour of the shrubs and trees, and in delving into their shade, and into the tunnels formed in the "pahoehoe" lava, he will marvel at the delicacy and luxuriance of the kidney ferns, their pale green translucent fronds inrolled when dry and fully opened when moist, being one of Rangitoto's chief claims to fame. Not five minutes from the main wharves there are glades of these ferns more beautiful than a dream. And still people ask, "\\ hat do you see in Ixangitoto And others carry bags of weedfilled soil there, as magpies carry oddments to their nests, in their sincere desire to "brighten up old Rangi" with the gruesome colour schemes of the average city garden. Let us make Rangitoto a true sanctuary, where Nature's experiment ran march grandly on to its climax, and where we can see at least one piece of virgin vegetation, and glory in the gifts that the changing seasons bring to the island. (To he concluded)