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Spread of Heath in Nelson District.

THERE is little doubt that the early colonists introduced to their gardens ' the plant Erica arborea, commonly called heath. To-day it may still be observed - “ within the garden walls.” In the memory of the early settlers heath was planted as an ornamental shrub. From this stage they have watched it spread over wide areas of the Moutere clays. While it appeared no menace on the gorse-covered foothills, its further invasion on grazable hill pasture, together with its acknowledged difficulty of control, now places it in the class of one of the district’s despised introductions. The Moutere clays fringe • the coast of Tasman Bay for twelve miles, extending inland to cover an area of approximately 400,000 acres. In the main, they are of low fertility ; they lack lime, phosphate, nitrogen, and organic matter, and the trace elements boron and cobalt. On the sunny, coastal slopes are Nelson’s apple-orchards. Farther inland there is extensive afforestation, and wide stretches of hill pasture, with some unproductive wastes carrying little vegetation other than scrub and fern. Strange. as it may seem, the spread of heath has been noted only on the Moutere clays. On this soil-type the shrub has widespread distribution in the Mapua, Orinoco, Dovedale, Neudorf, and Wakefield districts. The country, admittedly, is poor, but no measures of the settlers have been successful in combating the spread of heath on their hill lands. , .; Cutting and burning the plants seems ineffective ; the heath appears to grow with renewed vigour. Because of the tough, woody nature of the heath plant

pulling it is impracticable, while on certain areas there is such a smother of plants that no pasture growth is possible. When grown under, the care and protection of ■ garden lovers heath forms a robust shrub and attains a height of io ft. or more. In the field it commences flowering as a small plant, and the apparent mature stage is reached in a thick scrub of 5 ft. to 6 ft. Like gorse, the flowering-period is of extended duration.

. Although in-flower specimens may be gathered from June to November, the full flowering peak appears to be reached in the mpnth of August. The white, bell-like flowers, of which there are thousands per plant, mature myriads of small, smooth, dust-like seed, which is readily wind-borne or carried in the fleece of sheep. Seed dispersal is effected in February. Young plants establish apparently with little difficulty, chiefly due to the poor, open swards on much

of this hill-class pasture. . Heath appears to be unaffected by either insect pest or stock. . : While the general spread of gorse on much poor clay country of .this type is

looked upon by graziers not with complete disfavour, heath most certainly is a useless and unwelcome shrub. Were it economic either to cultivate, lime, or top-dress the areas where it flourishes, some control might be effected. Fire

and cutting fail, and therein lies our difficulty in • the eradication from poor though productive pastures of another introduced plants “gone native.”

D. M. E. Merry,

Instructor in

Agriculture, Nelson.

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Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZJAG19381220.2.72

Bibliographic details

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 57, Issue 6, 20 December 1938, Page 532

Word Count
511

Spread of Heath in Nelson District. New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 57, Issue 6, 20 December 1938, Page 532

Spread of Heath in Nelson District. New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 57, Issue 6, 20 December 1938, Page 532

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