fiona1960's Favorites

This grand tree is on the Southern bank of Orewa estuary.

Source - WIKKI
Aerial Roots

Aerial roots are roots above the ground. They are almost always adventitious. They are found in diverse plant species, including epiphytes such as orchids (Orchidaceae), tropical coastal swamp trees such as mangroves, banyan figs (Ficus subg. Urostigma), the warm-temperate rainforest rata (Metrosideros robusta) and pohutukawa trees of New Zealand

These aerial roots, also known as adventitious roots. They grow out of trunks and branches.

Nick Stott, a Heritage Arborist with the Auckland Council, considers that there is no 'evidence' that pohutukawa trees grow aerial roots for any reason in particular. But sometimes they appear to develop these roots in an attempt to bind themselves together, as the species is known for 'layering' characteristics where branches fall to ground level, still attached to the tree.

The roots may attempt to bind the tree together, or start the process for rerooting when the branch finally gets to the ground.

Te roots will continue to undertake work that roots do — optimising every situation and providing air and water to the tree.

Wikki
The New Zealand dotterel (Charadrius obscurus) is a species of shorebird found only in certain areas of New Zealand. It is also called the New Zealand plover or red-breasted dotterel, and its Māori names include tūturiwhatu, pukunui, and kūkuruatu.

Parents lay eggs in the spring and summer. They nest on beaches above the high tide mark, and the nest is just a shallow hole dug in the ground, not made of twigs like a nest in a tree. The chicks hatch about 28 days after the eggs have been laid. Because the nests are on the ground, chicks can walk the day they hatch. Chicks have to find their own food – the parents do not feed them.[5] They can usually fly within 6–8 weeks.

Source: WIKKI
Kawakawa is found throughout the North Island, and as far south as Okarito (43.20 °S) on the West Coast, and Banks Peninsula (43.5 °S) on the east coast of the South Island. The leaves are often covered with holes caused by the caterpillar of the kawakawa looper moth (Cleora scriptaria). The images depict the variety majus which has larger and more glossy leaves than P. excelsum. The name kawakawa comes from the Māori language, where it refers to the bitter taste of the leaves, from kawa or bitter.[a]

Leaves
Kawakawa leaves are about 5–10 cm long by 6–12 cm wide; they are opposite to each other, broadly rounded with a short drawn-out tip and are heart-shaped at their bases. The leaves are deep green in colour if growing in the forest, but may be yellowish-green in more open situations.

Flowers
The flowers are produced on greenish, erect spikes 2.5–7.5 cm long. Kawakawa flowers are quite minute and very closely placed around the spike. After pollination the flowers gradually swell and become fleshy to form small, berry-like fruits that are yellow to bright orange.

Berries
Each berry cluster is the size of a small finger. Ripening period is January and February. These fruits are favoured by kererū or New Zealand pigeon (Hemiphaga novaeseelandiae) and tui (Prosthemadera novaeseelandiae).

Uses
Kawakawa is a traditional medicinal plant of the Māori.[3] An infusion is made from the leaves or roots, and used for bladder problems, boils, bruises, to relieve pain or toothache, or as a general tonic. The sweet edible yellow berries (most often found in summer on female trees) of the plant were eaten as a diuretic.

It also is important in cultural contexts: host people of a marae wave leaves of kawakawa to welcome guests. At a tangi, both hosts and guests may wear wreaths of kawakawa on the head as a sign of mourning.[4]

It is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in gardens.[5]

Relationship with kava
Kawakawa is sometimes called "Māori kava" and is often confused with the kava plant (Piper methysticum). While the two plants look similar and have similar names, they are different, albeit related, species.

Kava is a traditional plant and beverage of the South Pacific. The roots of the plant are used to produce a drink with medicinal, sedative, anesthetic, euphoriant, and entheogenic properties.[6] It is most likely not a coincidence that this plant has a similar name to kawakawa. One source stated: "In New Zealand, where the climate is too cold for kava, the Maori gave the name kawa-kawa to another Piperaceae, M. excelsum, in memory of the kava plants they undoubtedly brought with them and unsuccessfully attempted to cultivate. The Māori word kawa also means "ceremonial protocol", recalling the stylised consumption of the drug typical of Polynesian societies."[6]

Source: Wikki
leodictyon cibarium is a saprobic species of fungus in the family Phallaceae. It is found in Australia,[1] New Zealand and South Africa, where it commonly known as the basket fungus or the white basket fungus, alluding to the fruiting bodies, that are shaped like a round or oval ball with interlaced or latticed branches. Although the immature volvae are edible, the mature fruit body is foul-smelling and covered with a slime layer containing spores on the inner surfaces.

The Māori people had 35 different names referring to I. cibarium. These included tutae kehua ("ghost droppings"), tūtae whatitiri, and whareatua ("house of the devil"), kōkirikiriwhetū, kōpurawhetū, korokorowhetū, wheterau, popowhaitiri, tikowhatitiri, paruwhatitiri, matakupenga, and tūtae whetū. Several of the names refer to Whaitiri, the atua and personification of thunder, this is because of I. cibarium fruiting bodies' appearances following thunderstorms.[2][3]

In a 2018 poll, I. cibarium was ranked second by Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research for its pick as New Zealand's national fungus, being defeated by Entoloma hochstetteri.[4]

Wikki

Found in most parts of Europe, and also North America, where it was accidentally introduced[3] including in British Columbia, where it is designated a noxious weed under the British Columbia Weed Control Act.[4] It lives in wet places, sand dunes, waste land and hedges.

In 1725, houndstooth was presented in the family dictionary, Dictionaire oeconomique, as part of a cure for madness.[5] In that book, madness was viewed as "a distemper, not only of the understanding, but also of the reason and memory, proceeding from a cold, which drys up everything it meets with that is humid in the brain."[5] To cure madness, Dictionaire oeconomique noted:
You must shave the head of the unhappy patient, and after that, apply to it a pidgeon, or a hen quite alive; or else bathe it with some brandy distilled with rosemary, elder, hounds tooth, and the roots of bugloss, or with the oyl of elder flowers: they rub their heads and wash their feet with a decoction of the flowers of camomile, melilot, balm gentle and laurel; they put into their noses the juice of comfrey, with either two or three spoonfuls of honey-water, broth, or white-wine, wherein wormwood and sage are infus'd ; or else they do for five and twenty days together, mix with their broth in the morning, halt a dram of the ashes of tortoise, and they put into the pot bugloss, borage, with a pinch of rosemary to season it.[5]

In the 1830s, houndstooth was known in France to be made into an emollient and diuretic for daily use in inflammatory diseases, especially of the urinary organs.[6] To prepare as a diuretic, the houndstooth leaves were mashed, and then boiled in water to extract oils, volatile organic compounds, and other chemical substances.[6] The mix could be sweetened with liquorice to create Ptisan of Dog's-grass.[6] After decoction, the herbal tea was taken internally a cupful at a time.[6] In 1834, the Hospital of Paris provided a formula of 2/3 ss—J to Oij of water for houndstooth tea.[6] By the end of the 1830s, doctors in England were using houndstooth as an antiaphrodisiac to combat venereal excesses.[7]

Herbalists use the plant for piles, lung diseases, persistent coughs, baldness, sores, and ulcers but the effectiveness of all these uses is not supported by any scientific evidence.[8

Toxic to cows.

DOC
https://www.doc.govt.nz/nature/native-plants/harakeke-flax/

Quick facts
Flax is unique to New Zealand and is one of our most ancient plant species.
Flax bushes will often support a large community of animals, providing shelter and an abundant food resource.
Tui, bellbirds/ korimako, saddlebacks/tīeke, short tailed bats/pekapeka, geckos and several types of insects enjoy nectar from the flax flower.
Flax snails, a rare land snail living only in the Far North, often shelter under flax bushes. These snails don’t eat any part of the flax, but rather they munch on fallen leaves from native broadleaved trees.
Harakeke was the name given to this plant by Māori.
The first European traders called it ‘flax’ because its fibres were similar to that of true flax found in other parts of the world.
Although we still call it flax today, harakeke is really a lily.
Flax species
Common flax grows up to three metres high and its flower stalks can reach up to four metres. It has seedpods that stand upright from the stems.

Mountain flax never grows as large as common flax, rarely reaching more than 1.6 metres high, and its seedpods hang down.

Within the two flax species, there are numerous different varieties of flax. Some have drooping, floppy leaves while others grow as stiff and upright as spears. Flax flowers can vary in colour from yellow to red to orange.

Uses of flax
Flax was a valuable resource to Europeans during the nineteenth century because of its strength. It was New Zealand’s biggest export by far until wool and frozen mutton took over later in the century.

Today, flax is used in soaps, hand creams, shampoos and a range of other cosmetics. Flaxseed oil can also be found for sale. There have even been experiments to make flax into wine!

Flax was the most important fibre plant to Māori in New Zealand. Each pā or marae typically had a ‘pā harakeke’, or flax plantation. Different varieties were specially grown for their strength, softness, colour and fibre content.

The uses of the flax fibre were numerous and varied. Clothing, mats, plates, baskets, ropes, bird snares, lashings, fishing lines and nets were all made from flax leaves. Floats or rafts were made out of bundles of dried flower stalks. The abundant nectar from flax flowers was used to sweeten food and beverages.

Flax also had many medicinal uses. The sticky sap or gum that flax produces was applied to boils and wounds and used for toothache. Flax leaves were used in binding broken bones and matted leaves were used as dressings. Flax root juice was routinely applied to wounds as a disinfectant.

Removing the leaves
Traditionally when harakeke leaves were removed from the plant, only the older leaves on the outside were taken. It was believed the three inner layers of the plant represented a family. The outer layer represented the grandparents, whereas the inner layer of new shoots – the child – remained and were to be protected by the next inner layer of leaves, the parents.

Threats
Flax is generally a very common plant throughout New Zealand, but many of the special forms that were cultivated by Māori for weaving were nearly lost during the twentieth century.

Luckily, a few growers maintained their collections of special flaxes over the years. These cultivars have been in strong demand again due to a revival of interest in flax weaving over the last 20 years. Landcare Research now holds national collections of the unique cultivars and distributes plants to weaving groups and marae throughout the country.

WIKKI
Kawakawa is a traditional medicinal plant of the Māori.[3] An infusion is made from the leaves or roots, and used for bladder problems, boils, bruises, to relieve pain or toothache, or as a general tonic. The sweet edible yellow berries (most often found in summer on female trees) of the plant were eaten as a diuretic.

It also is important in cultural contexts: host people of a marae wave leaves of kawakawa to welcome guests. At a tangi, both hosts and guests may wear wreaths of kawakawa on the head as a sign of mourning.[4]

It is commonly grown as an ornamental plant in gardens.[5]

DOC Notes:
Flax is unique to New Zealand and is one of our most ancient plant species.
Flax bushes will often support a large community of animals, providing shelter and an abundant food resource.
Tui, bellbirds/ korimako, saddlebacks/tīeke, short tailed bats/pekapeka, geckos and several types of insects enjoy nectar from the flax flower.
Flax snails, a rare land snail living only in the Far North, often shelter under flax bushes. These snails don’t eat any part of the flax, but rather they munch on fallen leaves from native broadleaved trees.
Harakeke was the name given to this plant by Māori.
The first European traders called it ‘flax’ because its fibres were similar to that of true flax found in other parts of the world.
Although we still call it flax today, harakeke is really a lily.

My notes
Never harvest in the dark or rain
Leave the babies and parents
Always karakea

How to tell difference

Manuka
flowers have short stamens
Leaves are pointy at the tip
The flowers of the manuka are almost as big as a one dollar gold coin.

Kanuka
flowers have long staymen
On the other hand the flowers of a kanuka are smaller than the one dollar gold coin
Kanuka – In addition to being small, the flowers also grow in clusters. This means that there are several flowers growing together in one spot.

Source: Wikkipedia
Mānuka honey for export from New Zealand must be independently tested and pass the Mānuka Honey Science Definition test as specified by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), The test comprises five attributes. Four are chemical and one is DNA of Leptospermum scoparium.[2] The honey must pass all five tests to be labeled as mānuka. This testing came into effect on 5 January 2018.[6]

The MPI does not have a definition for mānuka sold in the New Zealand domestic market. The MPI Five attributes test is the only standard recognised by New Zealand legislation.[citation needed]

s a result of the high premium paid for mānuka honey, an increasing number of products now labelled as such worldwide are counterfeit or adulterated. According to research by UMFHA, the main trade association of New Zealand mānuka honey producers, whereas 1,700 tons of mānuka honey are made there annually representing almost all the world's production, some 10,000 tons of produce is being sold internationally as mānuka honey, including 1,800 tons in the UK.[12] In governmental agency tests in the UK between 2011 and 2013, a majority of mānuka-labelled honeys sampled lacked the non-peroxide anti-microbial activity of mānuka honey. Likewise, of 73 samples tested by UMFHA in Britain, China and Singapore in 2012–13, 43 tested negative. Separate UMFHA tests in Hong Kong found that 14 out of 56 mānuka honeys sampled had been adulterated with syrup. In 2013, the UK Food Standards Agency asked trading standards authorities to alert mānuka honey vendors to the need for legal compliance.[12] There is a confusing range of systems for rating the strength of mānuka honeys. In one UK chain in 2013, two products were labelled "12+ active" and "30+ total activity" respectively for "naturally occurring peroxide activity" and another "active 12+" in strength for "total phenol activity", yet none of the three were labelled for the strength of the non-peroxide antimicrobial activity specific to mānuka honey.[12]