Welly's Hungry Botanist

Welly's Hungry Botanist All photos are mine. Battling plant blindness in Ao/NZ & raising awareness for plants conservation

04/11/2025

It's a bit overdue to announce this, but a little while ago I finished my thesis and it's just recently been published in the Victoria University library. This was a long time coming, and I'm very thankful to my supervisors, Dr Peter Ritchie and Dr Carlos Lehnebach for their support, as well as the support from all of my friends and family, and my partner .

I had a few interesting findings, most importantly, that the flowering times of many of our orchid species are getting earlier every year. To be specific, about half of my 21 study species were flowering earlier in 2024 than in 1920. There were plenty other interesting bits - so please have a read if you're interested (though I may make my findings a feature of future posts).

None of my findings would have been possible without the data provided by the herbaria held at Te Papa, Auckland Museum, and by Manaaki Whenua, nor the support provided by their amazing staff. I'm equally indebted to iNaturalistNZ, and all of the many people who have uploaded their orchid photos to it, or spent time curating the observations held by it.

If you would like to still contribute to my project, you can. I'll be looking out for orchid photos, particularly old ones taken from before 2010, and even better, ones from before 2000. Regardless of the date, I'll use any observation of my study species uploaded before I publish my main findings, likely towards the beginning of next year.

https://openaccess.wgtn.ac.nz/articles/thesis/Climate_Change_and_the_Phenology_and_Distribution_of_Native_Orchids_in_Aotearoa_New_Zealand/29919299?file=57208145

What a pleasure it was to see the Nationally Critical Pimelea mimosa last weekend, near Te Mata Peak in the Hawkes Bay, ...
18/10/2025

What a pleasure it was to see the Nationally Critical Pimelea mimosa last weekend, near Te Mata Peak in the Hawkes Bay, where it is endemic. This very, very rare species is found only on that peak, a condition that it shares with the 'temata' form of the slightly more widespread Chionochloa flavicans. Unfortunately, due to fires, habitat destruction, weeds, and collection by overzealous botanists, it has become very rare. However, in recent years it has apparently been well looked after by a local conservation group.

This species used to be considered part of the species Pimelea aridula until 2011, when it was described for the first time. Like many other local endemics it was first recognised as distinct by Tony Druce, though, like the majority of the Pimelea genus, it was described by C.J. Burrows.

P. mimosa grows only on limestone cliffs, as well as talus and soils derived from limestone rock. A long chain of limestone exists from roughly Te Mata down to Puketoi in the Manawatu and near Ruakōkoputuna in southern Wairarapa. This chain is made up of billions upon billions of long-dead shellfish. These scallops, brachiopods, and clams lived 2-5 million years ago, before dying in layers and being compressed into rock. Now that they're exposed to the elements, they produce basic soils (those with high pH). Usually, such conditions make poor growing conditions for plants, because high pH conditions can deprive plant roots of water. Yet, these environments can often lead to the natural selection of species and varieties of plants that are adapted to basic soils. In the North Island, there are very few limestone endemic species (only 9 of 152 total NZ taxa; Rogers, Courtney, & Heenan, 2018)

Further reading:
Rogers, G.M.; Courtney, S.P.; Heenan, P.B. 2018: The calcicolous vascular flora of New Zealand: life forms, taxonomy, biogeography and conservation status. Science for Conservation 331. Department of Conservation, Wellington. 37 p.

What an exciting find this was- Daucus glochidiatus/New Zealand carrot! Like the common name (and binomial name, if you'...
29/03/2025

What an exciting find this was- Daucus glochidiatus/New Zealand carrot!

Like the common name (and binomial name, if you're also a nerd) suggests, D. glochidiatus is indeed a carrot. It's a small, annual herb of open sites, that can easily be confused with the many introduced species in the carrot family, Apiaceae (such as Daucus glochidiatus and Torilis sp.). Unlike the other species, D. glochidiatus is usually tiny (usually

Hear, hear, to frogs - it's World Frog Day! The other night, my girlfriend and I took a moonlit stroll in a forest in U...
20/03/2025

Hear, hear, to frogs - it's World Frog Day! The other night, my girlfriend and I took a moonlit stroll in a forest in Upper Hutt. The forest was alive with the sound of night creatures, including high-pitched trills. Next to a pond was a tree, on which two sets of tiny amphibious eyes were staring back at us.

These belonged to two adorable Litoria ewingii - whistling tree frogs. These frogs hail from Australia and are not one of the three native frogs of Aotearoa. Our native species are very cryptic and completely silent, distinguishing them from these loud, introduced whistling frogs. These are one of four introduced frogs, one of which is also a Litoria (tree frog), while the other two are Ranoidea (bell frogs).

While these aren't a natural part of Aotearoa, it was still a lovely moment getting so close to these beautiful animals. We both managed to get some great shots!

Introducing Veronica lilliputiana (formerly Parhebe canescens) - an example of the structural diversity of the genus Ver...
13/03/2025

Introducing Veronica lilliputiana (formerly Parhebe canescens) - an example of the structural diversity of the genus Veronica. Unlike the larger Veronica's (formerly H**e) many in Aotearoa will be used to, V. lilliputiana looks a lot more similar to some of the Eurasian members of the genus. Despite this, it was actually nested in the old genus Parahebe, alongside species like V. lanceolata.

V. lilliputiana is a South Island endemic found largely in the high country basins like the Mackensie and Hakatere, reaching its furthest North at Lake Lyndon. It's typically found in ephemeral wetlands, which dry out in the summer. The population pictured here is an outlier in many ways, being much further South and lower altitude than all other populations. Unlike the other populations, this one is on the coast, near Dunedin.

Unusually, introduced herbivores are the unlikely hero of this small population's survival. This is because turf communities are adapted to low competition, and are usually made up of low-growing herbs. In modern times, introduced weeds threaten these habitats, outcompeting rare natives like this one. Here, herbivores like rabbits (whose s**t is visible in some of these photos), but also sheep, limit the growth of weeds, allowing the species to continue to persist here.

04/12/2024

Spilling the tea on wetlands. 🍵

A global study has used teabags to measure carbon storage in wetlands. Scientists, including those from NIWA, buried 19,000 bags of tea in 180 wetlands across 28 countries.

This included three sites in New Zealand: Pahurehure Inlet, Bayswater and Whangateau Harbour. 💧

Why teabags? Teabags are a simple, cheap and standardised way to identify how different factors influence carbon breakdown rates in wetlands. 🫖

By burying teabags in wetlands and measuring the tea’s remaining organic mass over certain time periods, scientists can assess how well each wetland is holding onto its carbon stores. 🍃

The study found that warmer temperatures reduce the ability of wetlands to store carbon, meaning more is released into the atmosphere.

Read the full story here ➡️https://niwa.co.nz/news/spilling-tea-wetlands

📸 Markers showing teabags buried in Whangateau Harbour.

Here's another cool native grass - Taranui/Paspalum orbiculare. Like the last grass I posted about, taranui is a native ...
26/10/2024

Here's another cool native grass - Taranui/Paspalum orbiculare.

Like the last grass I posted about, taranui is a native from a genus of largely introduced species. In Aotearoa, there are 7 naturalised species, and at one point, taranui was counted among them, as a species introduced by early polynesian settlers. These days, the official wisdom is that taranui was more likely to have been dispersed here by birds. This is because our populations more closely resemble Norfolk island and Australian populations than Polynesian ones.

Taranui is mostly found in open sites, like the edges of wetlands and in gumland scrub. These ones we found on the edge of a former gumland, in a cleared urban wasteland near Whangārei, presumably destined to be built on. Thanks again to Marley Ford for showing me these!

Taranui was only ever known from fairly few locations, largely North of Auckland, and it seems to no longer exist in many of those. There's plenty of reason for this, most notably competition with faster growing grasses. For example, the fairly similar but larger Paspalum urvillae often grows and competes with it, which we saw at this site. Also, being an introduced-looking grass, there are examples of it being sprayed and weeded. For all these reasons, it is classed as Threatened - Nationally Vulnerable, the third most serious classification before extinct.

Here's a very cool native grass - Bromus arenarius. This grass is the only Aotearoa native in the genus Bromus, despite ...
21/10/2024

Here's a very cool native grass - Bromus arenarius.

This grass is the only Aotearoa native in the genus Bromus, despite there being some 13 other naturalised (and often weedy) species. It is also known from Norfolk Island and Australia. Here, it is quite the rare grass. It lives, generally, in high nutrient locations in or alongside seabird colonies, in open spots with sparse vegetation.

Its current threat assessment is At Risk - Naturally Uncommon, considering its relegation to these fairly specific habitats. Unfortunately, it seems to be very easily overtaken by weedy introduced grasses, of which we have plenty.

I've been quite taken by this rare and very pretty grass, since I learned of its existence months ago. It was such a pleasure to see it, so I'm grateful to Marley Ford, a great Northland local botanist, for showing me a known population on a recent trip to Whangārei for the NZPCN conference. We were lucky enough to bump into another new population later on.

Puawhananga (Clematis paniculata), is right in the middle of flowering right now. You can see this widespread vine throu...
16/10/2024

Puawhananga (Clematis paniculata), is right in the middle of flowering right now. You can see this widespread vine throughout Aotearoa. For many people, especially iwi Māori, this is a sign of Spring.

Looking closely at puawhananga, you might notice that different plants have very different looking flowers. Most of the world's flowers are made up of both male and female parts. While this is the norm, puawhananga and other plants are dioecious, meaning that each individual is either a male or a female. Plants like these make up some 13% of the flora in Aotearoa.

Looking closely at these two photos, you'll see that the first has only stamens (the male reproductive parts). The second is a female and yet strangely enough, also has stamens, as well as the expected pistils. These stamens are flattened and bright yellow, and the anthers do not produce pollen. Infertile stamens like this are called 'staminodes'. In puawhananga, they seem to be functioning similarly to petals, being very bright and attractive. This probably makes the flowers more visible to potential pollinators.

Have you seen hybrids between our native beeches (Nothofagus, now known as Fuscospora)? In this photo, I've got black be...
28/08/2024

Have you seen hybrids between our native beeches (Nothofagus, now known as Fuscospora)?

In this photo, I've got black beech (left; Fuscospora solandri) and hard beech (right; Fuscospora truncata) and their hybrid Fuscospora x apiculata in the middle. This hybrid pops up pretty much everywhere these two species grow together, such as the low elevation beech forest in Wellington.

The parents are obviously very different, with F. solandri having small, un-serrated leaves, and F. truncata having bigger, serrated leaves. F. truncata also usually has lighter coloured leaves than F. solandri. The hybrid is easily recognised by its intermediate appearance. Its leaves often have a few but not many serrations, and they're usually intermediate in size and colour.

There are putative hybrids between all of the Fuscospora species in Aotearoa. So far, I've seen three, including this one, one between F. cliffortioides and F. fusca, and one between F. cliffortioides and F. solandri. Hybrids between F. fusca and F. truncata apparently do occur, but they must be bloody hard to identify!

Kawakawa (Piper excelsum) is flowering! Observant eyes may notice that flowers come in two forms. This is because, like ...
26/08/2024

Kawakawa (Piper excelsum) is flowering!

Observant eyes may notice that flowers come in two forms. This is because, like many native plants, kawakawa is dioiceous, meaning that each individual is either male or female. The s*xes are easy enough to identify at this time of year, because the inflorescences are s*xually dimorphic. Additionally, only female plants produce fruit.

Males have long inflorescences that are made blueish-grey by copious amoints of pollen when flowers open (second photo). Females are much more understated and are easily missed. They're very short and covered in tiny white stigmas (first photo).

Interestingly, male inflorescences are not only larger, but also much more numerous on plants than female inflorescences. The trade-off is that male inflorescences are fairly short-lived compared to females, which go on to become fruit that only ripen in January/February. So, while female plants have to spend a lot longer allocating energy to each inflorescences, males initially put a lot of energy in while they flower. This would suggest that unlike people in modern society, both s*xes have similar allocation of energy to reproduction.

This makes sense, given that all plants that grow together compete. If males were spending less on reproduction, they'd have a competitive advantage over females, which could cause a s*x imbalance. While this would be great for individual male plants, it'd hurt the population overall. It's probably fair to say that we have a lot to learn from kawakawa!

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