If you’re out in the bush this spring, look out for one of our most striking native plants, the critically endangered ngutukākā/kakabeak.
Continue Reading...Archives For 30/11/1999
A beautiful pink kakabeak/kowhai ngutukaka flower to celebrate the first week of spring!
Continue Reading...
By Sarah Thorne, Awarua Wetlands Project Manager
It sounds like a bad joke. What is green, stringy and lurks at the bottom of Waituna Lagoon? The answer is Ruppia. Or it should be. But right now the future is not looking very green for this aquatic plant.
The life support system for Waituna Lagoon
So what is Ruppia?
Ruppia is a green, salt tolerant aquatic plant that grows on the floor of Waituna Lagoon like a meadow of long wavy seagrass. It’s essential for a healthy lagoon and is the life support system for the lagoon.
Just like grass, its roots hold the sediment together. Its leaves use up nutrients and create oxygen and they also provide a home for fish and aquatic invertebrates to live. It is even a meal for some fish and wildlife.
Without Ruppia the water quality declines, animal numbers decrease and the lagoon could become dominated by algae. Put simply: healthy Ruppia means a healthy lagoon and healthy fish.
Ruppia is very sensitive to water levels
What’s up?
DOC has just received the latest annual monitoring report from NIWA, which describes the health of the ruppia beds in the Waituna lagoon. This year’s results recorded the lowest number of sites with Ruppia and a reduction of overall cover of Ruppia since annual monitoring began in 2009. One of the species—Ruppia megacarpa, was only found at one of the 48 monitoring sites. Nuisance algal species that cause algal blooms and could smother Ruppia plants were also recorded in the lagoon during the monitoring.
A recent NIWA report describes the health of the ruppia beds
Why should we be worried?
We know that Ruppia is very sensitive to water levels, salty conditions during spring germination, nutrient loads (nitrogen and phosphorous) and water clarity. Even though some overseas species of Ruppia are marine species, ours are freshwater and estuarine species that are only tolerant of salty conditions as opposed to being salt lovers
Ruppia grows on the floor of Waituna Lagoon
What’s next?
It is hoped that under ideal conditions (high water levels and low salinity) Ruppia will flourish in the lagoon again.
DOC is working with locals and the Waituna Partners and Working Groups to help create the best conditions possible for Ruppia in the Waituna Lagoon.
It is hoped that under ideal conditions Ruppia will again flourish in the lagoon.
A full copy of the report is available on the DOC website.
Happy New Year! Welcome to our very first photo of the week for the year.
Did you welcome in 2014 with fireworks? We missed the pyrotechnic displays but have taken some inspiration from the flowering tī kōuka/cabbage tree which we think are the botanical equivalents of an exploding fireball lighting up the sky.
Tī kōuka are one of the most distinctive trees in the New Zealand landscape, especially on farms. They grow all over the country, but prefer wet, open areas like swamps.
This photo was taken by Jon Sullivan | CC BY-NC 2.0
Community Relations Ranger Anna McKnight is on the hunt for the rare white mistletoe, or to be more precise a photo of her favourite plant flowering.
I am crazy in love with the rare white mistletoe Tupeia Antarctica. I am looking for a photo of the flowers of my beloved, and am hoping other people who have fallen for the white mistletoe have taken a close up photo (or any photo at all) of these flowers.
The berry of the white mistletoe
Falling in love with mistletoes is easy! They are hemi–parasitic plants, this means they use specially adapted roots to extract water and nutrients from the stem tissues of their host plant, but also produce their own energy through photosynthetic green leaves. Mistletoes rarely harm their host tree in New Zealand.
White mistletoe in a host tree
I think we should start a tradition here in NZ of kissing under the mistletoe like they do in the Northern Hemisphere at Christmas time! In NZ the yellow – green flowers of the white mistletoe flower from October to December (which is why I missed them) and white to pink fleshy fruit from December to March.
Jean Stanley of the Pukawa Wildlife Trust helps protect the mistletoe from possums
I’m making an interpretation sign for a community called Pukawa at the bottom of Lake Taupō who are protecting this rare plant by trapping possums who love to eat the fruit. They also trap rats and stoats, which is great, as native birds play an important role in seed dispersal of the white mistletoe.
Ranger Anna blowing a ‘mistletoe’ kiss
If you have any photos of this flower, or know of somewhere I might be able to find them please email me at amcknight@doc.govt.nz.
