RE: New Zealand Flora

On March 12 Moira wrote:

<snip>
>Finally we have an example of a unique growth habit in certain
>not-necessarily closely related shrubs. These start life in a
>divaricating form and build up a bush in which all the shoots divide and
>divide, giving them their common name of Chickenwire Plants. Suddenly,
>however, when they reach a height of around a couple of metres they
>change to a normal adult form. This curious habit has puzzled botanists
>a lot and they have come up with one ingenious explanation. Before the
>Maori wiped them out the "grazing animal slot" in our bird-dominated
>fauna was occupied by several species of Moa (a group of birds related
>to the ostrich). It has been suggested that the divaricating habit
>allowed the plants to successfully resist moa grazing!!!

There are a number of New Zealand indigenous trees that have a distinct 
juvenile form, so different from the adult form that early botanists 
thought they were quite distinct species. Perhaps all evolved this way to 
avoid the moa? I cannot think of many where the juvenile form is attractive 
enough for most people to want to use them as garden specimens though. 
Certainly I struggle to appreciate my young Dacrycarpus dacrydioides, yet 
if given the chance it will grow into a magnificent tree - by around the 
25th century! All these trees with distinct juvenile stages seem to be slow 
growing and take many years to change to the adult form, but it is worth 
the wait if you are patient. A few however, such as the lancewood 
(Pseudopanax crassifolius or the even more unusual P. ferox), with their 
pendulous very long and very narrow leaves, are probably more interesting 
in their juvenile forms than as adult trees. Weird though.

Tim Dutton
"Raindrops", Main Road North, Kaitoke, Upper Hutt, New Zealand
(Latitude 41? 5' South, Longitude 175? 10' East)


I have taken the liberty of cross posting this to Organic Gardening, as
I thought it might interest my friends there also.

Moira
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
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