Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Plants
No visitor to NZ (particularly Australians!) will go for long without hearing about the dam-
age done to the bush by that bad-mannered Australian import, the brush-tailed possum. The
long list of mammal pests introduced to NZ accidentally or for a variety of misguided reas-
ons includes deer, rabbits, stoats, pigs and goats. But the most destructive by far is the pos-
sum, 70 million of which now chew through millions of tonnes of foliage a year despite the
best efforts of the DOC to control them.
Among favoured possum food are NZ's most colourful trees: the kowhai, a small-leaved
tree growing to 11m, that in spring has drooping clusters of bright-yellow flowers (NZ's na-
tional flower); the pohutukawa, a beautiful coastal tree of the northern North Island that
bursts into vivid red flower in December, earning the nickname 'Christmas tree'; and a sim-
ilar crimson-flowered tree, the rata. Rata species are found on both islands; the northern rata
starts life as a climber on a host tree (that it eventually chokes).
The few remaining pockets of mature centuries-old kauri are stately emblems of former
days. Their vast hammered trunks and towering, epiphyte-festooned limbs, which dwarf
every other tree in the forest, are reminders of why they were sought after in colonial days
for spars and building timber. The best place to see the remaining giants is Northland's Wai-
poua Kauri Forest, home to three-quarters of the country's surviving kauri. You can also get
up close to these behemoths of the botanical world along the Aoetea Track on Great Barrier
Island and in Coromandel's Kauaeranga Valley.
Now the pressure has been taken off kauri and other timber trees, including the distinctive
rimu (red pine) and the long-lived totara (favoured for Maori war canoes), by one of the
country's most successful imports - Pinus radiata. Pine was found to thrive in NZ, growing
to maturity in just 35 years, and plantation forests are now widespread through the central
North Island - the Southern Hemisphere's biggest, Kaingaroa Forest, lies southeast of Ro-
torua.
You won't get far into the bush without coming across one of its most prominent features
- tree ferns. NZ is a land of ferns (more than 80 species) and most easily recognised are the
mamaku (black tree fern) - which grows to 20m and can be seen in damp gullies throughout
the country - and the 10m-high ponga (silver tree fern), with its distinctive white underside.
The silver fern is equally at home as part of corporate logos and on the clothing of many of
the country's top sportspeople.
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