Plant species diversity beginning to increase

In 2018 Flame Tree Bank was completely dominated by environmental weeds.
The entire tangled mess, on a steep slope above regen kauri forest margin, was overhung by Flame trees (planted in 1999) which were initially expected to be controlled by arborism.

The prescribed arborism would have destroyed or smothered much of any regen present by that time, so we did not attempt to maintain much weed control here till 2020, when it became apparent that there would be no Flame Tree control by Council. ( A blessing as it turned out, as the site was not subjected to the massive injections of poison prescribed to accompany the arborism. And over the years since 2018, necessity being the mother of invention, we have discovered we can manually control all but the largest trees, through partial breaking of branches and ringbarking of small trunks, both of which procedures appear to have suppressed or slowed growth in the large trees of the primary stands, while eliminating about a dozen small stands in the forest itself).

So in 2018-19 we controlled only honeysuckle, ginger, Alocasia, Arum, moth plant, extensions of Flame Tree invasion, and kikuyu, allowing the more benign weeds including Tradescantia to maintain ground cover and suppress seeding of environmental weeds.

During hundreds of explorations and interventions, only 12 wild native plant species were observed on this bank from 2018-2023. (In addition to the wild regen, only some nikau seedlings were planted).

One of these wild native species was kahikatea, represented at time of writing only by 3 very young seedlings released from Tradescantia in 2019 and later dying (due to natural attrition or drought).

This week, under the shelter of the rapidly developing regen spreading from the boundary of Flame Tree
bank top with the adjacent Cape Honey Flower (CHF) Bank top, we found:

• a single mapou seedling
• a single Pteris tremula sporeling
• 2 Hebe stricta seedlings

and on Flame Tree Bank Lower, under the big ti kouka on the boundary with CHF Bank Lower:

• several Carex lambertiana

These 4 modest finds are all well-situated among 2-3 year-old native regen on likely to be overtaken by weed, drought or flood, not extraordinary or even of note in other situations, are very significant here, and the mapou and Pteris have increased the native species count of Flame Tree Bank by 30% :)

A very weedy site gives enormous rewards to the restorationist, by the contrast of ugliness, waste and destruction with the exponential growth, harmony and co-operation seen in the emerging native plant communities, in soil kept shaded, moist and richly fed by the composting weed material.

Not to mention the reward of the diminishing effort required over time to maintain the process of native regeneration and increasing diversity.

Posted on January 2, 2024 11:48 PM by kaipatiki_naturewatch