Should ka¯ka¯ beak be official bloom?
We savour our silver fern, marvel at the blossoming po¯hutukawa in summer, and get a kick out of kowhai but, bizarrely, none of these are designated as New Zealand’s national flower.
And it’s about time something was done to rectify this, according to experts of the nation’s flora aficionados.
The silver fern of the ponga tree is widely recognised as a national flora symbol of New Zealand.
It is worn by our sportsmen and women, backpackers and even nearly ended up on our national flag.
But, unlike many other nations, New Zealand does not have an official national flower despite there being no shortage of native options.
Gardeners, taxonomists, botanists and history professors who have discussed the topic say the ko¯whai, po¯hutukawa, ka¯ka¯ beak, Mount Cook lily, or even ma¯hoe could be the flower to represent our nation.
Unitec associate professor of plant ecology Peter De Lange said New Zealand was internationally recognised as a biodiversity hotspot, and with 85 per cent of our flora occurring nowhere else in the world, we needed an official national flower.
‘‘A flower helps identify our country in time and space, and ideally it should be something unique to this country,’’ De Lange said.
‘‘We’ve got the kiwi, and we’ve got the silver fern, but nobody decided whether we want a national flower, which I do find a little odd.’’
Australia has the golden wattle, the United States has the rose, China has the plum blossom, and last year Sri Lanka made the water lily its national flower.
‘‘I’d go for a flower that was only found here, beautiful to most people and which was threatened,’’ De Lange said.
Po¯hutukawa was too closely related to plants across the Pacific, and ko¯whai originated in Chile so they should be ruled out, he said.
In comparison, the ka¯ka¯ beak or ngutu ka¯ka¯ was one of the rarest plants in the world and uniquely ours, he said.
‘‘If Ma¯ori hadn’t cultivated it, it would probably be extinct. They used to wear the flowers in their ears or as necklaces.’’
To keep it alive, conservationists have been shooting the plant’s seeds from a shotgun into cliffs to allow them to grow without being eaten by predators.
Former supermodel Rachel Hunter has been the ka¯ka¯ beak’s patron since 2013 and said it is on the brink of extinction, with only 130 known to exist in the wild.
Making it our national flower would ensure its survival in New Zealand ’’and in our hearts’’, Hunter said.
‘‘With her fiery red flower, she shows the passion of the people of New Zealand.’’
Floral designer Fionna Hill said her national flower choice would be the world’s largest buttercup – the Mount Cook lily.
They can grow more than a metre tall with leaves larger than the size of your hand, she said.
‘‘The cup-like leaves will often hold water after a rainfall and trampers sometimes stop to slurp a drink from them,’’ Hill said.
University of Auckland senior history lecturer Felicity Barnes said blame for New Zealand’s lack of a national flower fell to the silver fern.
The fern became a popular motif for New Zealand from the turn of the 19th century, she said.
The 1888 Natives rugby tour used the silver fern as their emblem, and it was later used on war graves, she said.
However, AUT history professor Paul Moon said choosing a national flower was pointless.
‘‘The arguments for such symbolism hark back to a time when countries used such things as an expression of national distinction,’’ Moon said.
‘‘The internet has long since made this sort of identity creation redundant.’’