Saving the country’s native plants
Amost all of the region’s precolonial bush still exists in the Otari Native Botanic Gardens and Wilton’s Bush Reserve.
The Otari-Wilton’s Bush – as it is more commonly known – is a much-loved destination for walkers, nature lovers, or people just looking to get some fresh air.
But it is also where a team of people are working hard to save the country’s rarest species of flora and fauna, inside the country’s only facility dedicated to growing and propagating native plants.
Finn Michalak, the team’s collection curator, said the OtariWilton’s gardens were like a library or museum where native plant species from all over the country were collected and catalogued. About 1400 to 1500 of the country’s 3000 native plant species are grown there.
This happens for different reasons: to propagate for the garden’s collection, for research or education, and for the Department of Conservation (DOC).
Otari-Wilton is the only facility in the country dedicated to native plants. Other botanic gardens only do ’’bits and pieces,’’ Michalak said.
In the nursery are plants like the Celmisia ‘Mangaweka’, which are now extinct in the wild. Only one plant remained when DOC asked the Otari-Wilton team to collect it.
‘‘Its fate is unknown, because it hasn’t got a stable habitat to go back to. Hopefully something can be done with it in the future,’’ Michalak said.
Otari-Wilton was home to native plants that were more endangered than many native animals, he said.
‘‘Our plants get overlooked, they don’t seem to be as enigmatic as birds or other animals ... certainly getting people to care for them is a challenge we are trying to stand up to.’’
Team manager Rewi Elliot said Otari-Wilton also offered the public an opportunity to celebrate plants.
‘‘We differ from a park in that respect in that we have structured programmes around education and conservation to help people learn about it.’’
About 180 of this country’s native plant species were critically endangered, Elliot said.
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