Pink jasmine in Kaipatiki Creek
In 1997 the Kaipatiki Rd- side streambank was densely infested with Jasminum polyanthum throughout Zone Vb, ie from just below the present footbridge to Fernlea Rise, to where the stream emerges from canopy under the Sycamores at the stream's highest tidal reach.
A longtime local resident believed there had at one time been a dwelling somewhere along the stream, perhaps when it was owned by a pioneering orchardist of the area. Alternatively, the jasmine could have been planted at that point on the streambank, perhaps beside a favourite swimming hole without other vegetation. (Passive reforestation probably began on the transfer of ownership of the streambank from Stanley Rd to Beachhaven Ave to public ownership, perhaps when a road was planned and a "paper road" created in about the 1960s, according to the 1997-99 roading project's manager.)
By the time the stream and bush restoration by Kaipatiki Ecological Restoration Project began in 1997, the jasmine had canopied about 20m of streambank, and as removal of the jasmine progressed it was confirmed that all except the largest trees within the jasmine were dead; a dozen dead ponga trunks remained upright.
It was impossible to touch the ground, as criss-crossing runners layered 20cm deep formed a bouncy elevated "floor" throughout the Zone.
The runners went from ground to treetops, preventing entry at any level.
The jasmine extended into the stream but did not appear to have crossed it. The delicately carved sandstone streambed held mosses and ferns here as elsewhere, and the opposite bank was a mass of kiokio, with native foliage covering the entire bank down to the water's edge.
Several working bees were held on the Jasmine alone, a dozen pairs of secateurs simultaneously working their way into the mass, cutting from "floor" to "ceiling" and in every direction to reveal yet more jasmine.
One young Community Servant made it his mission to free this bit of bush from its captor. In several months of daily work on this one task, he gradually fought through about ten metres of dense ground-to-canopy jasmine to reach the streambank, and extended this achievement about ten metres both up and downstream.
Once accessed, "Jasmine Bend" was found to have native carex, ferns, Montbretia and Tradescantia along its streambank. Handweeding produced a slow spread of the ferns and carex along the streambank.
Once the jasmine was removed, the ground was shaded still by a few tall trees, but this canopy held nothing but the headless ponga trunks. The ground was absolutely bare of visible life, with little leaf litter or humus, now possibly also compacted by months of trampling, though the ground was dry during the months of the jasmine removal.
The Zone then became known as Kiokio Bend rather than Jasmine Bend
Not all the hidden roots could be accessed on the steep bank at the downstream edge of the canopy, hidden Jasmine roots survive many years, and the area is once again Jasmine-infested, visible alongside the bush path created after road construction here in 1999, and hidden at the water's edge.
It is now visible also under dense diverse canopy on the other side of the stream, below Witheford Drive and Fernlea Rise, both up and downstream of the footbridge.
In anticipation of explosion of this invasion along the streambank and in the roadside trees in late 2018, having made extensive enquiries and learned that this area was not included in Auckland Council's service contract for plant pest control, we performed a little ad hoc manual control of the jasmine at the streamside, removing many metres of unrooted runners from the water, pulling them up the bank onto hard land, and cutting some of the vines from the hangehange, ponga, kanono and mahoe on the bank, releasing some kiokio, Deparia and other ferns, carex, kanono and mahoe juveniles.
We also cut and/or uprooted a few young runners of the same invasion on the uncanopied bank about 10m further downstream, at the upper tidal reach near the sycamores, (Zone Wa) where they have reached the top of young ti kouka and other native trees. We were unable to descend the bank to reach the roots, so several trees remained covered in jasmine, still receiving some light and not yet irrecoverable from strangulation.
Our preliminary survey finds Pink jasmine control already well underway, presumably by Wildlands Ecocontract, resulting in a vastly reduced invasion in the canopy on the Kaipatiki Road side. We expect the smaller invasions on the Witheford Drive side of the stream are to be controlled in an upcoming operation.
Some observations of the jasmine invasion in 2018:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/15462656
dense in a few square metres of canopied stream bank in the area of the earlier infestation
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/18293707
Continued spread observed June-Sept 2018 involved many trees
near the footbridge and walkway to Fernlea Rise, both on the Kaipatiki Rd bank
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/18293709
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/15942079
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/16482205
and Witheford Drive bank
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/17120539
and in the stream itself, both up and downstream of the footbridge
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/17016216
https://inaturalist.nz/observations/16482196
[Edited for clarity 16 Nov 2023]
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