Native seed scramble as Myrtle looms
Council swings into action to protect tree species from deadly wind-borne rust
Hundreds of officials across the country are scrambling to gather seeds of more than 30 native plant species now threatened by deadly fungal disease myrtle rust.
Auckland Council and other regional authorities have been directed to go out and collect seed of important native myrtle trees, in a nationwide emergency seed-banking effort being led by the Department of Conservation (DoC).
The rust, which poses a major threat to cherished native myrtle species like pohutukawa, manuka and rata, as well as feijoa and bottle brush, has been confirmed to have spread from the Kerikeri nursery where it was first found last week.
Officials say it may now be impossible to contain the wind-blown scourge.
The impact it will have on some of the country’s most important plant species, and the $300 million manuka honey industry, remains unclear.
But one assessment produced by the Government in 2011 warned large areas of the country could be affected and, at one extreme, some species could die on a “landscape scale” as had happened in other countries.
Over the past few years, authorities have been stocking up the NZ Indigenous Flora Seed Bank to maintain an insurance supply of seeds. .
But efforts have ramped up since the Kerikeri incursion, with DoC sending out dozens of staff across the North Island and the upper part of the South Island to collect seeds.
Seeds were being stored at the Margot Forde Germplasm Centre run by AgResearch at Palmerston North, with extra storage facilities now being developed at botanic gardens as back-up.
DoC’s science and policy director of threats, Allan Ross, said there were 33 native species potentially at risk, including five that were already classified either as threatened, vulnerable or at risk. In Auckland, teams have been directed to parks to gather seed from six species, including manuka and swamp maire.
While banking the seeds could allow researchers to identify strains resistant to the disease, the priority now was to get the “seed in hand”, Auckland Council biodiversity manager Rachel Kelleher said.
Botanic gardens at Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch and Dunedin and other gardens at Taranaki, Gisborne and Hamilton would now also work with DOC. Landcare Research scientist Dr Andrea Byrom, director of the Our Biological Heritage National Science Challenge, said scientific institutes were due to meet on Monday to discuss the incursion.
The situation wasn’t helped by the fact it was the wrong time of the year to be collecting seed, Byrom said. “So that’s part of the problem, and if it goes fast and really takes off, then we could get caught — especially with some critically threatened species.”