Waipoua Forest, Kauri, NZ | February 2020

Waipoua Forest

Some of the most impressive living kauris are located in the Waipoua Forest in the Northlands of Northwestern New Zealand. These are massive forest emergents with straight trunks and spreading crowns. The two most visited specimens are Te Matua Ngahere and Tane Mahuta. The board walks leading to these specimens is raised above the forest floor to prevent damage to the delicate superficial feeding roots of these and other kauri trees in the Waipoua Forest.

Te Matua Ngahere, “Father of the Forest” in the Maori language, the smaller of the two most famous specimens, has massive girth of 16.41 m (53.8 ft), with a trunk height of 10.21 m (34.5 ft) and a total height of 29.9 m (98.1 ft). The trunk volume is calculated as 208.1m3 (7349 ft3).

Tane Mahuta, “Lord of the Forest” in the Maori language, is the largest living kauri tree. It is thought to be more than a thousand years of age. Its girth of 13.8 m (45.27 ft) is less than that of Te Matua Ngahere, but its trunk height of 17.7 m (58. ft) and total height of 51.5 m (168 ft) is greater. The trunk volume is calculated as 244.5m3 (8634 ft3). A painting at the Kauri Museum in Matakohe (https://www.kaurimuseum.com) depicts a tree that may have been still more massive, but was destroyed in a forest fire in the 1890s. This tree had a girth of 20.12 m (66 ft) and height to first branch of 30.48 m (100 ft) compared to 17.7 m (58 ft) in Tane Mahuta.

Kauri Museum, Kauri, NZ | February 2020

The Kauri Museum in Matakohe (https://www.kaurimuseum.com) tells the story of the extensive logging of the original kauri resources of the Northlands from technological and cultural perspectives. These trees may live for a millennium or more and were heavily exploited in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Kauri (Agathis australis,) have massive clean trunks with few lower branches and produce highly desirable timber.

The Kauri Museum contains a large plank recovered from a fallen tree that had a girth 23.7-24.9 m (78-82 ft) and a diameter if 7.92 m (26 ft) and may be the largest kauri ever recorded. In addition to living trees, subfossil trunks buried in the muds and peats of lakes and ponds in the Northlands, so-called swamp kauri, were also excavated and recovered for their timber.

Analysis of the annual rings in the massive kauri trunks from living and subfossil trees is being used to understand past climate change in New Zealand.

A further valuable resource from kauri forests that was exploited commercially is kauri gum, the resin produced as a wound response by living kauri trees.

Vast quantities of subfossil kauri gum were collected by so-called “gum diggers.”

Kaurui gum was exported to markets in Australia and in Europe and was used for making varnishes and paints.

Polished pieces were used for decoration, as well as a substitute for amber in jewelry.

All of these photographs were taken at the Kauri Museum in February 2020.

Kauri Dieback Disease | February 2020

An intensifying threat to living kauri trees in New Zealand is the emergence of “Kauri Dieback Disease,” which results in yellowing of leaves, premature loss of branches, thinning of tree crowns, lesions that bleed resin, and eventually tree death. The responsible pathogen is a species of Phytophthora, related to that responsible for the Irish Potato Famine of the late 1940s.

The New Zealand Department of Conservation and its partners take very seriously this threat to the remaining large kauri trees. Visitors are encouraged to clean and disinfect footwear and other equipment before and after entering kauri forest,

and to stay on the board walks and clearly specified tracks.

Some areas are also declared off-limits to visitors.

Precautions are also taken to avoid contact with, or damage to, the shallow feeding roots of kauri trees.

Mosses, Liverworts and Filmy Ferns in High Moisture Environments in New Zealand | February 2020

In places where forest cover still remains on both the North and South Islands of New Zealand, especially close to waterfalls, as well as other habitats where humidity is high, there are rich communities of mosses, liverworts and filmy ferns . These plants all require water to flourish and reproduce.

The moss, liverwort and filmy fern flora is especially rich and abundant in the high rainfall areas along the West Coast of the South Island, including in the fjordlands of Southwest New Zealand.

Mosses, liverworts and filmy ferns are plants all require water to flourish and reproduce.

Leafy moss.

Filmy ferns (next three images) are an ancient lineage of ferns that reach their maximum diversity and abundance in tropical and temperate rainforests.

Mosses (next four images), with many more species, are also diverse in these kinds of habitats, as also are the liverworts, which include thalloid (next two images) and leafy forms (last two images). 

Thaloid, or liverwort, moss.

Thaloid, or liverwort, moss.

Leafy moss.

New Zealand | February 2020

Characteristic Plants of the New Zealand Landscape

Except for unstable substrates on the coast or in river valleys, and alpine areas above the tree line, the New Zealand landscape was blanketed in forest before the arrival of people: first the Maori about 800 years ago, and then Europeans beginning in the late eighteenth century. Through the nineteenth century with increasing European immigration much of the New Zealand landscape was cleared and transformed into pasture for sheep and cattle. However, two indigenous plants New Zealand Flax (second image) and Cabbage Trees (third image) remain conspicuous in open landscapes on both the North and South Islands. Two trees introduced from North America are also very common, Monterey Cypress (fourth image) and Monterey Pine (fifth image).

New Zealand Flax (Phorium tenax)

New Zealand Flax and Cabbage Trees (next photo) were both widely used by the Maori. New Zealand Flax, a very different plant from European flax, is endemic to Norfolk Island and New Zealand. It is the source of an important fiber in Maori culture and was also used commercially through the mid-twentieth century.

Cabbage Trees (Cordyline australis)

Cordyline australis is one of five species of Cabbage Tree native to New Zealand that were used for food and fiber by the Maori, and also in medicine. Cabbage Trees are widely planted as a palm-like ornamental in the warm temperate regions of the world, especially those with oceanic climates.

Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa)

Monterey Cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa) and Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata, next image) are both species that have very restricted distributions on the West Coast of North America, but grow extremely well in the moist, equable climate of New Zealand.

Monterey Cypress occurs in the wild in only two small populations near Carmel, California, but has flourished in New Zealand where it grows to a much larger size than in its native area. It was widely planted in New Zealand as a wind break and also for fence posts. Monterey Cypress is sometimes included in the genus Hesperocyparis as Hesperocyparis macrocarpa.

Monterey Pine (Pinus radiata)

Monterey Pine, native to just a few areas in the Central Coast of California and two islands off Baja, is considered endangered in the wild. However, it is a fast-growing, has wood with desirable properties for pulp and timber, and is the most widely planted pine in the world. Monterey Pine is used extensively in New Zealand and is the foundation of New Zealand’s important forestry industry. Extensive plantations have been established on both the North and South islands.

Charleston, South Carolina | February 2020

Varieties of Camellia flowering at the Middleton Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina, in February 2020. There are records of Camellia cultivation in China from the fifth century, and the first western encounters were by Andreas Cleyer and Engelbert Kaempfer in Southern Japan in the late 1600s. Numerous cultivars are now widely grown throughout temperate regions of the world selected from Camellia japonica and related species. The first Camellias at Middleton Place are reputed to have come as a gift from the French Botanist André Michaux in 1786.

A .Camellia flower emerging from festoons of Spanish moss - Tillandsia usneoides - at the Middleton Plantation near Charleston, South Carolina.

Live Oak (Quercus virginiana)

The massive Live Oak (Quercus virginiana) at the Middleton Plantation at the Ashley River near Charleston, South Carolina. This tree sits at the edge of the formal gardens developed by Henry Middleton in the 1740s. It may well have been a Native American trail marker long before the European arrival in North America, and it is estimated to be 900 to 1000 years old. It has lost several of its main limbs and has been battered by hurricanes over its long life, but it is still a magnificent tree.

Chinese Fringe Flower (Loropetalum chinense)

The Chinese Fringe Flower (Loropetalum chinense) flowering in early February in Beaufort, South Carolina. This is the form with long red/prink strap-shaped petals. There is another form with white to pale yellow flowers. Native to China, Northeastern India and Japan, this species is widely cultivated and also used in Chinese traditional medicine. There are two other species of lovopetalum endemic to China.

The flooded eighteenth and nineteenth century rice fields at the Middleton Plantation, with the Ashley River in the background. Originally swamp forest, the land was cleared by African American slaves who also constructed and managed the rice plantations. Rice was a major cash crop and valuable export from the low country of South Carolina, especially during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.

A typical Live Oak - Quercus virginiana - in Beaufort, South Carolina.

National Museum of Natural History | January 2020

Chinese plumb yew (Cephalotaxus fortunei)

It was very nice to see two interesting conifers planted on the west side of the Museum. The Chinese Plum Yew - Cephalotaxus fortunei - native to China and northern Myanmar and the Umbrella Pine - Sciadopitys verticillata - native to Japan. In both cases the close-ups show the preformed pollen cones that will expand and release their pollen in a few months.

Umbrella Pine (Sciadopitys verticillata)

Torrey Pines State Reserve | January 2020

Torrey Pines (Pinus torreyana)

The vegetation at the Torrey Pines State Reserve is a mixture of coastal sage scrub and chaparral and contains many interesting and rare plant species. Especially interesting is the Torrey Pine itself (Pinus torreyana) which is a very rare specie of five-needled pine that grows only here and on Santa Rosa Island. These are probably relics from populations that were once much more widespread.

Agave shawii

Another rare plant of Torrey Pines State Reserve is Agave shawii - named after Henry Shaw founder of the Missouri Botanic Garden, St. Louis.

Agave shawii is a very are plant in this part of California (also in  Baja, Mexico). It was introduced into Torrey Pines State Reserve were it is now naturalized and flourishing.  

Coastal sage scrub at Torrey Pines State Reserve with Shaw's Agave (Agave shawii), Mojave Yucca (Yucca schidigera) and Torrey Pines (Pinus torreyana).

Carpobrotus

The fleshy red leaves of Carpobrotus on the bluffs at Torrey Pines State Reserve - this is an invasive species - probably Carpobrotus edulis from South Africa (but another species Carpobrotus chilensis - from Chile is also invasive in California.

Wart Stemmed Ceanothus (Ceanothus verrucosus)

Ladies Fingers (Dudleya edulis)

A low growing succulent with remains of last year's flowering stalks.

Yerba Santa (Eriodictyon californicum)

An aromatic herb with a variety of traditional medicinal uses - also a focus of modern medical research .

Laurel Sumac (Malosma laurina)

California Polypody (polypodium californicum)

A fern growing in shaded, slightly damp north facing habitats at Torrey Pines State Reserve

Del Mar Manzanita (Arctostaphylos glandulosa)

Mary Friestedt - our wonderfully knowledgeable volunteer guide at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve

L to R - Ari Novy, Tony Gurnoe and Bradi Eide getting up close with the plants at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve.

Lemonade berry (Rhus integrifolia)

Marah macrocarpus var. macrocarpus

Manroot, Wild Cucumber, Chilicothe, Mock Cucumber - a member of the cucumber family that has a massive underground tuber.

San Diego Botanic Garden | January 2020

Coast Banksia (Banksia integrifolia)

From Eastern Australia. Specimens of this species were among the plants collected at Botany Bay, Australia in April 1770, by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, the two naturalists on Captain Cook’s first voyage to Pacific. Most Banksia species are adapted to life in fire-prone habitats. In many Banksia species new plants sprout readily from a woody underground tuber after fire. In other species fire stimulates the release of seeds from thick woody pods and their subsequent germination. This specimen is in cultivation in the San Diego Botanic Garden.

Dragon Tree (Dracaena draco)

A dragon tree (Dracaena draco) growing in the San Diego Botanic Garden. The species is native to the Canary Islands with populations occurring on Cape Verde, Madeira, and in western Morocco. the tree produces a red resin.

With colleagues from the San Diego Botanic Garden - photograph courtesy of Brandi Eide.

Left to right - Tony Gurnoe, PRC, Mary Friestedt, Ari Novy

Coast Banksia ( Banksia integrifolia)

From Eastern Australia. Specimens of this species were among the plants collected at Botany Bay, Australia in April 1770, by Sir Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, the two naturalists on Captain Cook’s first voyage to Pacific. Most Banksia species are adapted to life in fire-prone habitats. In many Banksia species new plants sprout readily from a woody underground tuber after fire. In other species fire stimulates the release of seeds from thick woody pods and their subsequent germination. This specimen is in cultivation in the San Diego Botanic Garden.

A plant of Olulu (Brighamia insignis)

A very rare plant that is native only to Hawaii and that is one of Hawaii’s rarest plants. Once common, this species is now highly threatened. Ex situ conservation in botanic gardens, such as this specimen growing in the San Diego Botanic Garden, will be crucial for the long-term survival of this highly unusual and rare Hawaiian plant. The few remaining individuals in the wild grow only on cliffs in Kauai.

Queensland Bottle Tree (Brachychiton rupestris)

An unusual tree with a swollen bottle-shaped trunk. This specimen is growing in the San Diego Botanic Garden.

Poinsetta (Euphorbia pulcherrima)

A poinsetta (Euphorbia pulcherrima) planted in a private garden in Encinictas north of San Diego and growing as a perennial. Poinsettas are the most economically valuable potted plants. Many varieties have been developed, almost all of them in by Ecke family at their operations once based in Encinictas. It was the Ecke family who were largely responsible for building the association between poinsetta and Christmas.