FOREST TREES

Taranaki Daily News, 28 September 1929, Page 19 (Supplement)

FOREST TREES

NEW ZEALAND’S DOWER ' SOME UNIQUE SPECIMENS. NATURAL ENVIRONMENT NEEDED.

(By

E. Maxwell.)

This is the first of a series of articles to be contributed by Mr. Maxwell, who writes as orie of the Donjinion’s recognised authorities on trees and their care. He will deal with different classes of trees and plants, and with some special features, among them protection and propagation. .

Unlike many of those of other countries, our ’ large forest trees are inseparable. from the forest, or, as we call it, the bush. True, some of our large forest trees will grow in exile, but in the absence of their natural environment they lose much of their beauty, and, of course, the time which has elapsed': since the first were artificially established is but a fraction of what would be necessary for them to attain anything to be compared to the magnificence of their fellows in the forest, even if they could ever do so under the conditions resulting from, their exile. To those who, like myself, have, known the forest generally in its natural pristine glory, with its extraordinary, almost tropical, luxuriance of hrowth, more varied in species, size and ?drm, though, perhaps, not in colour — except in infinite shades of green —than that of any other country, the great forest trees are but a part, though an essential and magnificent part, of an entrancingly beautiful whole. To go into the mixted forest, where unimpaired 1$ the depredations of man or beast, was truly to enter into the enchanted land. One moved silently over, or stood spellbound on, a forest floor deeply covered with the most beautiful carpet of endless varieties of mosses, ferns, creepers, lichens, highly coloured fungi, aiid endless other plants. All the soil, roots, stumps-and logs, similarly covered, presented tho most entrancing fairyland imaginable. This complete covering of the forest floor extended unbroken, but with -the addition of climbing, hanging and erect plants —filmy and other ferns, creepers, lycopodiums, orchids, and numerous epiphytical plants —up the trunks and along the limbs, and even along the smaller branches of the trees, especially so of the giants of the forest. Added to this indescribable beauty there was the delightful scent of the moist mosses and ferns, and the especial, never to be forgotten, fragrance of the pine, and as you stood enraptured in this enchanted land you subconsciously listened to the gentle sounds of the forest enlivened by the melody of the tui and the bell-bird, the soft coo of the pigeon, the peculiar noise of the parrakeet, the whistle and screech of the kaka, and the lonely call of the woodhen. All such and much more goes to make our virgin forest an unsurpassed paradise -for the nature lover and the richest treasure, wround for the botanist. o A GALAXY OF BEAUTY.

Our forests and mountains contain an imiiiense variety of trees, shrubs, ferns, mosses, etc., of" extreme beauty. There is ' no other country of similar size or any similar area in the world that has nearly the wealth of plant life nor with such a large proportion (about 75 per cent.) endemic. Various reasons account, for the first, such as the general configuration of the country, great proportionate length from north to south—• some 14 degrees of latitude, from 34 decrees to 47 degrees—ite insular conditions with great length of coast linesome low and some high—and the interior lands ranging from low plains and higher plateaux to low and high ranges and lofty mountain jgeaks, the varied geological formation, High mean annual temperature and great difference according to locality in the annual rainfall, ranging from as low as 15 inches up to over 200. The reason for there being such a large number of species which are confined to the country is doubtless its remote insular position, but it is most remarkable that, considering the comparative nearness of Australia, there its a striking lack of similarity of plant life there to that in New Zealand. Whilst in general our forests contain a very great number of species, the comparative numbers vary greatly according to the locality and the general nature of the forest. Speaking broadly, the whole plant life (apart from the purely alpine j is much more diverse where there are low hills and deep gullies, and where tire larger forest trees are of mixed species—pines (rimus, matais, miros, kaliikateas, and totaras), hinaus, tawas. puketeas, possibly large beeches, etc.—than in almost pure stands of white pine (kahikatea) in the lowland, in the beech forests, of the higher elevations, or in the forests of the north, which were well stocked with the kauri. Many species are widespread from end to end of one island or the other, or of both; other.s are of peculiarly local occurrence. and others somewhat abruptly terminate at certain definite lines, whilst others seem to be arbitrarily restricted to or excluded from certain areas. SOME PRONOUNCED FEATURES Some of the most pronounced features of our New Zealand, forests, which are in marked contrast to those of Australia, our nearest neighbour, and more or less to those of many other countries, are such as the very great mixture of species, the exceedingly varied form and size of the trees and plants and the

jungle-like growth; the'■complete covering of. the forest floor, logs, stumps and tree stems, the masses of lianes and the numberless epiphytes of every description with which tho trees,, especially, the giants of tho forest, are clothed from root to topmost branch throughout, and the entire absence of reptiles (except small lizards) and beasts. The vegetation for the most part is of semi-tropical nature, and there is an almost entire absence of deciduous trees or plants, which means that the forests throughout arc evergreen. There is a areat preponderance of broad-leafed trees over the pines. All the pines (except three of dwarf nature) and a great number of the broad-leafed trees, large pnd small, produce timber of high value, some of which is of exceptional quality and beauty,’ and our forests had they been reasonably preserved from ruthless wholesale destruction would now be amoncr the most valuable forests in the world? Many of the trees, notably the kauri, riinu, matai, kahikatea and rata, grow to great dimensions, some approximating, in timber, content, the largest trees in existence, and certainly being among the grandest' forest giaiits. One remarkable thing in connection with our greater forest trees, considering the exceedingly favourable climatic and other conditions, and the very rapid trrowth of most of the small trees and shrubs and also the rapid growth in New Zealand of many exotic timber trees, is that their- growth is. exceedingly slow—so very slow, that the time required for their re-growth to maturity,, though possibly not to some useful size, would reach into the dim ages of the future, and therefore the preservation so far as possible' of what is still left us in natural environment should be looked upon as almost a sacred duty by every true citizen.