Trip Report – 5 August 2017 :   Nga Manu Nature Reserve, Waikanae

Azolla ruubra.   Photo: Jeremy Rolfe.

Our group of 35 people, comprising BotSoccers, Nga Manu guides and staff, and Levin Native Flora Club members, set out in glorious weather to botanise the forest loop track through the remnant of coastal swamp forest, and the lookout track.   After a brief stop on the island to look at dwarf mistletoe / Korthalsella salicornioides which is being successfully cultivated here, we set off around the loop track, rapidly breaking up into smaller groups.   For me the highlight was the swamp forest remnant with lots of swamp maire / Syzygium maire and pukatea / Laurelia novae-zelandiae.   Pneumatophores everywhere!   And an interesting array of climbers including kiekie / Freycinetia banksii, swamp lawyer / Rubus australis and the biggest NZ jasmine / Parsonsia heterophylla I have seen in a long time.   Also lots of the fork fern, Tmesipteris.

After lunch we had a diversion to the top of the hill near the reserve’s boundary to look at thick-leaved coprosma / Coprosma crassifolia growing in open scrub.   Then on to the lookout track, with lots of small-flowered mistletoe / Ileostylus micranthus growing next to the track, and a nice mix of tupari maunga / Gahnia xanthocarpa and rautahi / Carex geminata.   Back out of the forest remnant, the plantings were diverse and interesting.   I liked the well-chewed ongaonga / Urtica ferox in the butterfly garden, and the thick mat of the floating fern, Azolla rubra everywhere there was water.

Urtica ferox.   Photo: Jeremy Rolfe.

Thanks to Rhys Mills and Matu Booth for the reduced entry fee and co-leading the trip, and to Chris Horne for the species list.

Participants : Peter Beveridge, Matu Booth, Pene Burton Bell, Lelia Chrystall*, Barbara Clark, Gavin Dench, Michele Dickson, Jenny Fraser, Richard Grasse, Bryan Halliday, Robin Halliday, Chris Hopkins, Chris Horne, Jane Humble, Marianne Jenner, Brian Karl, Robyn Karl, John Lewin, Rodney Lewington, Rhys Mills, Chris Moore, Syd Moore, Tessa Roberts, Darea Sherratt, Karin Sievwright, Barbara and Roy Simons, Sunita Singh, Julia Stace, Ian Townsend*, Brian and Judith Tyler*, Julia White.   Eleanor Burton (scribe, and co-leader with Rhys Mills).   * member, Levin Native Flora Club.