Trip Report – 4 March 2017 :   Barry Hadfield Nikau Reserve, Paraparaumu

At the start of the pre-trip briefing, Mick Parsons asked us to observe a minute’s silence, in memory of Barbara Mitcalfe.   Barbara, who died on 7 January, was on the recce of the reserve on 16 June 2016, and was to have been co-leader of our trip.

This 11ha DOC reserve is managed by Kapiti Coast District Council.   Greater Wellington Regional Council staff service twelve possum bait-stations in the impressive coastal nikau / kohekohe.   As a result, palatable species are now regenerating well.

Loxogramme dictyopteris.   Photo: Jeremy Rolfe.

The species list we used was prepared for the Department of Lands and Survey in 1986 by Maggy Wassilieff, Denis Clark and Isobel Gabites, with additions made during recces on 16.6.2016 and 5.6.2017.   Everyone in the group had a copy of the list on which each species was numbered to make it easy for the person to put a tick against a plant identified.   The reserve, which rises from 20m to 160m above sea level, is traversed by two tracks.   We climbed the older, northern track, and descended the newer, southern track.   Among the significant additions to the list were kahikatea and miro, both found by someone who ‘answered the call of Nature’ 30m off the track!   How often finds are made on such occasions!   Other additions included black maire, putaputaweta, the ferns Adiantum aethiopicum, A. cunninghamii and A. diaphanum, Loxogramme dictyopteris and Pteris macilenta, Microtis unifolia agg., Carex banksiana, Gahnia pauciflora, Libertia (grandiflora?), and Stellaria parviflora.   Among the more worrying weeds are Asparagus scandens / climbing asparagus and on the northern track, the fern Pteris cretica / Cretan brake.

Participants : Joe Buchanan, Gavin Dench, Carolyn Dimattina, Kat de Silva, Amelia Geary, Ian Goodwin, Jill Goodwin, Richard Grasse, Bryan Halliday, Chris Hopkins, Chris Horne (leader), Graeme Jane, Alison Lane, Richard Parfitt, Mick Parsons, Karin Sievwright, Sunita Singh.