xenohortphobia?

"Sean A. O'Hara" wrote:
> 
> At 06:49 PM 11/30/00 +0200, Vavourakis wrote:
> >Dear Glen and all,
> >
> >What is the point of ripping out beautifully acclimated Medit-plants from
> >freeways and public places when they require so little care and maintenance?
> >
> >I'm a newish member, and I have just begun to digest the many convincing
> >dialogues I've heard regarding adaptable plants and how we should embrace
> >them for the sake of water conservation, etc.  Now I am being asked to
> >sympathize with evicting these successful foreign invaders?
> >
> >This is the strangest form of xenophobia I've ever heard of!
> >
> >Karen Vavourakis, Greece
> 
> Hi Karen -
> 
> I can understand both sides of this argument.  Perhaps the most persuasive
> point is that foreign invaders are causing big problems in places like
> South Africa where the flora is so rare and precious that any amount of
> invasion can threaten several species at once.  In this region, the richest
> botanical kingdom in the world, a cubic meter can contain hundreds of
> species, some endemic to a hectare (or less) of land.  

Sean
Although not so spectacular, the flora Of NZ is also unique and precious
because so much if it is incredibly ancient and only survived for so
long because of prolonged geographical isolation. Unfortunately one
effect of this isolation has been to suppress the ability to cope with
aggressive strangers.

In any case the natural flora has already been sorely tried by very
large land clearences by incoming (especially the European) settlers.

Befor man reached these islands virtually the whole lowland and montaine
area was forested with patches of grassland virtually confined to high
altitude herb fields.
The coming of the early Maori began to change this particularly in the
South Island where a good deal of burning took place (Largely, as far as
we can tell by Moa hunters to flush out their prey) and some lowland
grassland began to form.

The Europeans in their turn burned and cleared large tracts of forest in
both islands specifically to farm, and filled them up with their own
pasture and crop species. Along with these inevitably came a whole raft
of "weeds" or wild plants associated with the British countryside, which
created the wayside flora of modern NZ. When I think about it, apart
from stray ferns or tree seedlings from the nearby bush, not one of the
normal "weeds" of my garden is actually a native. I might be back in the
English countryside when I weed and could certainly use a British flora
to identify most of what I see. About the only places one would find
genuine NZ native wildflowers is close to the sea and up in the
mountains. US gardeners might be interested to know, for instance, that
NZ spinach grows wild on the coast near us just above high tide mark.
There are only a very few herbaceous or small shrubby species of
flowering plants which are found naturally in bush (several of which we
cherish in our gardens). The vast bulk of forest floor dwellers here are
ferns mosses and liverworts, which can grow in great profusion.

We have only realized in recent years however, that the incomers were
not being content to stay in the cultivated areas, but were beginning to
invade, along with some of our garden plants, the already much
beleagured remaining native areas. Two particuarly bad species in this
respect  are Clematis vitalba (Travelers Joy) and Tradescantia
fluvitalis (Wandering Willy or Wandering Jew) Both these are very bad in
bush. The Clematis grows over and strangles large tracts and the
Tradescantia largely prevents the growth of new seedlings.

Moreover as one progresses northward to warmer and warmer climes more
species become aggressive, and particularly in the Auckland region and
northwards there is now a vast list of garden plants which can become
dangerous invaders and which people are being urged to remove from their
properties and from waste spaces around them. The most responsible
members of the trade now have a covernant with the Dept of Conservation
not to propagate or sell the most aggressive of these species.

Moira

Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata (near Wellington, capital city of New Zealand)
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index