Nature's Corner - Mid Autumn 2005 - Flora Notes
What’s flowering?
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| Male Kanono |
Kanono (Coprosma grandifolia). Throughout the valley and easily seen along Lake Road. In late April flower buds were beginning to open to cream spiky flowers on the female trees and soft pollen-producing anthers were dangling down on delicate filaments on the male trees.
Maire Tawake / swamp maire (Syzygium maire). Creamy-white pohutukawa-type flowers on the trees on the western side of Lake Road between the Te Mahanga and Swamp Tracks.
Koromiko (Hebe stricta). Still flowering in April. Look for the racemes of tiny pale lilac flowers fading to white, and the new green capsules, on the bushes along Lake Road and other paths and tracks in the valley.
New season’s fruit forming
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| Coastal tree daisy |
Coastal tree daisy (Olearia solandri). Look for the small bush growing on the bank opposite the Safety Sign at the beginning of Lake Road. It is covered with clusters of small fluffy seed heads.
Mapau / red matipo (Myrsine australis). Throughout the valley, but most easily seen on the tree on the right at the entrance of the Round Lawn above the Heritage area. Many trees have a prolific crop of tiny green and brown fruits clustered along their branchlets. The pinkish brown or purple brown colour indicates that they are still unripe and likely to remain on the trees for quite some time.
Kohuhu (Pittosporum tenuifolium). By early May, pale green, slightly furry seed capsules on the female or hermaphrodite trees were beginning to open to reveal small sticky black fruit. Throughout the valley, but look for the tree along the fence at the Heritage area behind the Dora Elder seat.
Tarata / lemonwood (Pittosporum eugenioides). Bunches of small green seed capsules on trees throughout the valley. Check out the tree overhanging the fence at the Heritage area behind the Ferguson seat.
Hangehange (Geniostoma rupestre). Throughout the valley. Small green seed capsules on most bushes. At this stage they look like berries, but when mature they will dry out and split open to expose a cone-shaped mass of sticky seeds.
Ripe Fruit or Seeds
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| Rewarewa seed pods |
Rewarewa (Knightia excelsa). At the Rewarewa Bridge (second from the south end) on Te Mahanga Track to observe the clusters of brown seed pods that have replaced the flowers. At this stage each is tipped with a long needle-like extension that was the style in the original flower.
Poroporo (Solanum laciniatum). Throughout the valley large, glossy, olive-shaped green berries ripening to orange.
Pate (Schefflera digitata). Clusters of finger-like stalks, crowded with tiny greenish fruits ripening to wine-red, hang down beneath the leaves. Best specimens on the lakeside of Lake Road opposite the listening posts.
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| Whau seed capsules |
Whau / corkwood (Entelea arborescens). Clusters of large, prickly, brown capsules, splitting open to shed seeds, are on trees near the end of the track to the Campbell Street emergency exit.
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| Kakaha fruit |
Kakaha (Astelia fragrans). Some plants at the northern end of Tui Terrace still had masses of ripe orange fruit at the beginning of May. Look into the centre of the rosettes of sword-like leaves near the Miro sign.
Mahoe / whiteywood (Melicytus ramiflorus). A common tree in the Sanctuary. On female trees the tiny round berries are ripening to violet or purple. Look especially at the tree on the left at the entrance to the Round Lawn above the Heritage area or that on the west side of Lake Road just south of the weka Fence.
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| Karamu fruit |
Karamu (Coprosma robusta). Throughout the valley, masses of small green berries on female trees ripening to orange. At the Heritage area, look for the tree growing near the water’s edge opposite the rear Boatshed doors.
Porokaiwhiri / pigeonwood (Hedycarya arborea). Tight clusters of bright orange berries on female trees. Best seen on the trees along the roadside through the weka gate as you approach the southern part of the Valley View Track.
Vines
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| Akakura flowers |
Akakura / scarlet rata vine (Metrosideros fulgens). Found throughout the valley. Look for the flashes of orange-red flowers on the western scarp above the Lower Lake.
Kohia / native passion vine (Passiflora tetrandra). Green, olive-shaped fruit were ripening to orange in early May. The largest specimen is growing on the shrubs across the drain at the bottom of the driveway leading up to the Visitor Centre.
Karewao / Kareao / supplejack (Ripogonum scandens). Loose bunches of ripe red berries and tiny newly formed green berries are noticeable throughout the valley but most easily seen along both the Beech and Swamp Tracks.
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| Pohuehue |
Pohuehue (Muehlenbeckia australis). Tiny fleshy green flower heads on female bushes opening to reveal a single black three-cornered seed. Pohuehue is a climber but will also form a free-standing bush of a tangle of ‘branches’. There are two such bushes on Lake Road. One, about ten paces along from the second group of weed boxes on the right and the other about twenty paces along on the left. Note also the many vines growing on the trees along the western fringe of Tui Terrace.
Nature's Corner is written by Sanctuary volunteers Pam Fuller and Allison Buchan. © All photographs, except where indicated, Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. Clicking on photos with blue borders will take you to a larger photo.
Published 4 May, 2005.