WAINUIORU'S FLORA

Wainuiorū's flora

 

The upper Wainuiorū valley has some precious remnants of the native trees and other plants that used to cover most of the Wairarapa.

    Five areas were recommended for protection in a 2004 Department of Conservation report, "Eastern Wairarapa Ecological District: Survey report for the Protected Natural Areas Programme":

RAP19 Waipapa Stream Bush Indigenous Forest Remnant (on Naipo, in vee betw Masterton-Stronvar and Te Parae Roads);

RAP22 Makahaka Stream area (beside Puketiritiri Road);

RAP23 Whakatahine River remnants (on Pariroa);

RAP25 Ngaumu Bush (upper Upokongāruru, east of Ngaumu Road);

RAP28 Kuamahanga Bush (upstream near Te Wharau Road);

    There is also RAP29, Wainuiorū River Bush, but it is south of Te Wharau Road, as are several others.

    Among the report's "Other Areas of Biological Importance" were: Te Parae Gorge, Deep Gorge Bush, Totara Flats Bush and, in the hills to the east, Te Maipa Bush and Pukekowhai Bush.

    Some of both groups (or parts of them) are protected as covenants between the landowners and the QEII National Trust.

    The DoC report can be read or downloaded as a pdf file from:

http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/getting-involved/landowners/eastern-wairarapa-pna.pdf

    It has detailed information on the trees and other plants in each place.

    The Wairarapa Combined District Plan notes DoC's "Recommended Areas for Protection" (RAPs) but says they are included "for information purposes only, and will be referred to if a resource consent is required under any rule in the District Plan".

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Critical – but surviving

    One exceptional find was made five years ago close to the Whakatahine stream. It was of the largest known population of Olearia gardneri, Gardner's tree daisy, which was officially listed as "threatened – nationally critical". Until then, only about 160 plants were known in the wild, most in the Rangitikei region with a few on scattered sites in the Wairarapa.

    Then in 2013 the QEII National Trust's regional representative, Trevor Thompson, was examining the potential for covenanting of a block of bush on Pariroa farm and discovered the rare plant. The surprising find was confirmed by three expert botanists.

    Eventual counting of 374 specimens more than tripled the number of known plants. Importantly, unlike at other Wairarapa sites, they included seedlings and saplings.

    The Department of Conservation says Olearia gardneri supports at least nine moth species and that it may have a pivotal role in helping to heal land slips, being replaced by larger forest trees over time.

Links:

http://www.doc.govt.nz/Documents/conservation/native-plants/olearia/olearia-gardnerii-factsheet.pdf

and http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.aspx?ID=30

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An international favourite

An attractive tricoloured flax found on a cliffside of the Upokongāruru in the 1880s became popular among gardeners overseas as well as in New Zealand. Brancepeth head gardener William Summers spotted it in 1888 and a farm employee who had previously worked on ships was lowered by rope and pulley to extract examples. Summers, who had trained at Kew Gardens in England, cultivated the plant and it became widely used.

    The plant's leaves are striped with yellow and green, edged with red, and the cultivar is known as Tricolor or Summersii. Examples can be seen today at the Brancepeth homestead.

    The original is wharariki or Phormium cookianum subsp. hookeri, which is endemic (unique) to New Zealand. It is smaller than harakeke, the common New Zealand flax.

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caption: The Tricolor wharariki