Journal Number 106
December 2007

ORIGINAL PAPERS

Truckin' and Huntin'
By Gary Little, Diggers Valley, Kaitaia.

During my early twenties I spent time on outlying New Zealand islands but missed out on huntin' native orchids.

13 months on subtropical Raoul Island in the Kermadecs brought pohutukawa and nikau to my notice, but nothing much in the herbs. My only real huntin' was the goats with very little huntin' of the floral type. I did get to experience the anger of a volcano, though, and was evacuated for a period during the volcanic eruption of 1964. At subantarctic Campbell Island in `66/67 my huntin' was for feral sheep, not the island's veritable paradise of flora.

From the mid70s, main interests have been race walking and most (all) of my spare time training and truckin'. Truckin' covered racing over distances from 3000m to 50km.

This is still a passion, but just over five years ago, my wife Asta and I purchased a 56 acre plot of native bush in the backblocks of the Kaitaia region in preparation for retirement.

We placed a QE II Open Space Covenant on the property and began to explore our new found treasure. The diversity of the trees and ferns was enthralling, odd coloured fungi would spring into view after the rains, all bringing us a little closer to nature. A five hour trip each way from Auckland most weekends seemed worth it for house improvements plus tending bait stations and traps for predator control. Within two years we were beginning to see, and hear, a significant improvement in both the flora and the fauna.

Initially only a few Thelymitra, onion orchids and greenhoods were noticed, but soon other types started coming to notice. We were learning to look down and not just up!

More recently, our digital cameras have picked up some of the finer differences with the help of Eric Scanlen and Kevin Matthews. My huntin' now relates to finding and recording images of the fantastic little orchids on our property.

At the beginning of the year we retired and moved here full time so no longer miss the flush flowering period of any orchids. Some species are right at the back door displaying their beauty. Initially only Thelymitra aff. pauciflora was noticed because of its blue colour contrast to the yellow clay soil, then Pterostylis banksii popped up in shady, mossy areas. Interest was beginning to grow.

Some of the mossy areas began to produce Caladenia atradenia and C. chlorostyla, tiny in comparison to those others. Our largest kauri tree (about 400 years old) became more interesting when we found Ichthyostomum pygmaeum on it. The task of looking for its flowers hasn't yielded any images so far.

In the summer months, many Microtis arenaria seem to have good and bad seasons. Two Earinas produced large bunches of flowers in spring and autumn. Both are on clay banks and in mossy places on trees along with the larger flowered Winika cunninghamii. Pterostylis alobula showed up and Asta began looking for P. agathicola in the kauri area. There are signs, but no flowers as yet.

The list of species grows as time goes by. T. aff. longifolia is on clay road banks with Orthoceras novae-zeelandiae and O. strictum which are possibly cross pollinating.

A trip around the estate takes between 150 and 210 minutes depending on photographic diversions. Drymoanthus adversus is on many trees and patches of Chiloglottis cornuta are in the tea tree leaf litter with the spider orchids, Singularybas oblongus flowering a month or so after the spur orchid, Corybas cheesemanii. Acianthus sinclairii, sometimes called the pixie cap, is prolific. There are notable variations in colour here, yet to be evaluated. Maybe next year!

As you can see, Asta and I are becoming quite enthralled with our collection of little plants and look forward to a progression of "finds".