Re: Pandanus

--- Jason D <jjuania@yahoo.com> wrote:

> I believe, too, that there may be a few seedlings of
> the NZ Freycinetia around, but I've not seen them
> outdoors yet in the Arboretum.
> Cheers,
> Jason
> San Francisco
> 
> 
> --- Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

> > Another member of the Pandanceae is Freyncintia of
> > which  F banksii
> > (Kiekie) is named as "a hothouse plant from NZ"
> > (This is British
> > publication speaking). It is a climber growing up
> > supports by aerial
> > roots like an ivy and can apparently be grown
> > indoors on a peat-covered
> > pillar. It is immensely common in our local forest
> > park, where it grows
> > up any trees it fancies and is in time quite as
> > enveloping to the poor
> > things as an ivy. I don't fancy it myself. I think
> > it is possibly not
> > completely hardy even to our usually light local
> > frosts, as one only
> > sees it where there is a substantial overhead
> > canopy.

> > Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
> > Wainuiomata, New Zealand, SW Pacific. 12 hours
> ahead of Greenwich Time

Moira,

I would be most interested in getting seed of your
local Kieke/Freycinetia banksii, it looks like it
could be an interesting vining plant here for the Bay
Area's milder and wetter coastal areas.  The photo of
the plant in the new Cave and Paddison book, New
Zealand Native Plants, shows a rather attractive
foliage plant with a vague resemblance to a Podocarpus
macrophyllus, except very much longer foliage.

This same book also shows flowers of the endemic
Tecomanthe speciosa vine from the New Zealand Great
Island in the Three Kings Group.  My own vine is
larger in stem diameter, and I hope that my plant may
actually bloom this fall/winter.  Do you know if this
vine in habitat would have been exposed to salt spray?
 I wonder if this could be the missing ingredient to
promote blooming.  I understand that the original type
plant is extinct in habitat, and do not know if it
grew in immediate proximity to the sea and winds, or
in more protected scrub/forest conditions.  My
impression is that it grew in very exposed coastal
bluff conditions over low scrub and rock, without the
protection of tree canopy?

TIA,
David Feix

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals.
http://personals.yahoo.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index