Kiwi Christmas

‘Heartbroken’ nursery owners to be compensated, write Gerard Hutching and Mike Watson.

Myrtle rust will spread further – it’s inevitable. That’s the grim verdict from nurseryman Vince Naus, whose business is the latest to be hit by the killer fungus.

Vince and Ann Naus discovered myrtle rust spores on 20 sixmonth-old pohutukawa plants during routine checks at Big Jim’s Nursery and Garden Centre in Taranaki.

The couple immediately notified the Ministry for Primary Industries, and within two hours staff took away samples to Auckland to be analysed.

On Friday, the bad news they dreaded: confirmation the ‘‘yellow pustule-type’’ spores found on the plant leaves were myrtle rust.

Their business was one of six properties in North Taranaki, and two in the Bay of Islands, where myrtle rust disease has now been discovered.

‘‘It was just a matter of time for the spores to spread after they were discovered in Northland,’’ Vince Naus said. ‘‘It was inevitable when it got to Raoul Island we would be next, we’re the closest to Australia.’’

The couple’s garden centre and nursery business of 18 years is now a ‘restricted area’ under 24-hour MPI surveillance, and all trading and plant movements have been stopped until further notice. ‘‘Not even lawn clippings, if I mow the lawn, can be taken away.’’

Naus said the couple wanted to be open with their customers. ‘‘We could have gathered up the infected plants and chucked them away without telling anyone,’’ he said. ‘‘It is more important to let MPI know that the disease is here than try and cover it up.’’

Naus says the discovery of the disease on his nursery plants is ‘‘heartbreaking.’’

The couple are not insured but have been assured by MPI they will be compensated for any financial loss.

Ann Naus adds: ‘‘No one knows exactly what will happen, it’s the unknown and what effect it will have on the native trees which is the real concern for us.’’

Fifty MPI staff are in Taranaki this weekend undertaking ground surveys with all nurseries and plant centres to identify the extent of the disease spread in the region, MPI regional controller Mark Bateman says.

New Zealand’s fabled Christmas tree, the pohutukawa, was hanging by a thread in the early 1990s. Possums and human activity had killed about 90 per cent of the original trees.

Enter Project Crimson, a community and official project which succeeded far beyond its instigators’ wildest dreams.

Since then millions of trees have been planted, including the tree’s close relative the rata which was also in decline, and the fate of the two species is assured.

Or is it? In late March sharpeyed Department of Conservation staff spotted something on remote Raoul Island – 1000 kilometres north of Cape Reinga – that plant lovers and officials have been dreading for years.

It was myrtle rust, a fungal disease that has swept across the Pacific from its Central and northern South American home over the last 20 years, attacking and destroying plants as it goes.

Pohutukawa, like the native rata, manuka, and ramarama, is a myrtle. So are introduced feijoas and eucalypts, both important economic species.

On May 2, Kerikeri nursery owners Tom Lindesay and his wife Julia Colgan saw similar-looking yellow marks on juvenile pohutukawa.

They instantly alerted the MPI because they recognised by the telltale signs that it was myrtle rust. The fungus had reached the mainland.

Project Crimson director Gordon Hosking has advocated for some years that New Zealand plants should be grown in Australia to see if they were susceptible.

He believes that myrtle rust will likely be ineradicable, and the key now will be to hunt out genetically-resistant strains.

Julia Colgan says MPI staff began destroying all host species on Thursday, whether or not they had been infected. Manuka, kanuka, pohutukawa, rata – all gone.

If the disease is contained, she feels the disruption will have been worth it.

‘‘It’s been dreadfully difficult. We’ve been in this business for 25 years. But we will rebuild the nursery.’’