In Touch With Nature.

Hokitika Guardian, 21 October 1922, Page 1

In Touch With Nature.

NEW ZEALAND LIANES

(By J. Drummond, F.L.S., F.Z.S. in

the “Lyttelton Times.”)

The large flowered clematis, now one of the most conspicuous floral beauties in the forests, seems to favour shrubs ' rather than trees as supports. Mr J. ! VV. Bird, who studied this clematis in Deans Bush ,found that the best con- ; ditions of growth are vicinity to under- j lying shrubs and to many supporting , branches for the Pane’s climbing organs. When it grows in the interior of a forest. Mr Bird states, it reaches its greatest size where it uses smaller trees ns supports. Its normal upward growth apparently, is on shrubs, from which it continues its growth into the branches of overhanging trees. It may reach a height of thirty-five feet or more, and then the freequent branching of stems that have expanded along tlio top of the supporting tree results in an effective display of leaves. In the best conditions, the ascending | climbing stem, which is covered with a wrinkled bark, is amongst the leafy branches of the support, rather than ; close to the trunk of the support. ! When spaces between trees are bridged j the fresh support may he used for a j further display of leaves. When the space is short, a single branch of the liane may bridge it. but in many cases two or more projecting branches inter- ■ twine, and are hold in position by their : petioles grasping reciprocally. By the strength provided in this way, those branches may reach a support more than threo feet and a half away. When low shrubs are selected as supports, the liane grows horizontally along their tops. The petioles, by their action, prevent the climbing-stem being displaced by the wind, and ensure the leaves being maintained in the favourable positions they have taken up.

Lianes give many New Zealand forests a tropical appearance. Tn some cases, these rope-like stems hang down from lofty supports and sometimes supply supports for other lianes, tangled masses forming forest walls that offer some’ difficulty to passage. This j Dominion has no fewer than fortyseven species of lianes, including the supplejack, the clematises, the fuchsia, bush-lawyers and ratas. Early New , Zealand botanists believed that the luxuriant growth of lianes in New Zealand was of tropical origin. Mr I Bird’s studies seem to show that that is not so. lie states that the primary cause of the liane habit is not the great heat alone of a tropica 1 rain forest, hut that it is that condition combined with Croat moisture in the atmosphere. He adds; “The moisture is great in this country and the climate here is equable without extreme heat or extreme cold. That condition probably, is responsible for the high development 1 of lianes in New Zealand.”

Although New Zealand’s forty-seven Hanes belong to sixteen different fain- i dies, individual species have maincharacters in common. The leaves of some of them are different in th« | ptanits’ imjeni I<> ,a,nd •adujkt stages, i Shade leaves often are different from ' sun-leaves. Another common ehnrnc- I ter noted h.v Mr Bird is a tondenev to form adventitious roots. Other Plants form that class of roots. The position of roots in tho lianes of Deans Bush observed by Mr Bird support a view tfliat the chief faetoi in tlie pro- 1 duct ion of adventitious roots i s mois- 1 tore. They are very valuable in obtaining food for bancs, and in helping . them to spread. Vigorous shoots of lianos near those roots receive from them sufficient food and art able soon to reach the adult, stage. Air Bird found that in the differfnt specic s of hush lawyers the prickles are well developed at an early stage. Amsupport touched by a prickle inline-, diiitely is held by it. and young shoots of the lawyer are adapted to reach high supports quickly. When two shoots of a seedling rise up together : they support each other by their prickles grasping. By that means they may reach a height of almost three feet. \\ lien there are no supports near a seedling, the shoots trail along the ground and form long, flat strangling growths. At the cirrum.'stances of each growth there usually is a plant suitable for the support of the j lawyer .shoots. The scrambling filch- | sia, one of tho few native plants of I Nmv Zealand that, are deciduous. | scorns to demand a. great deal of mois- I tur, and. at the same time, soil that is well drained. Air Bird noted that in Dean’s Bush it is most plentiful in the siele.s of drains that run through j the' forest, or near them, and at tho I edge of the swampy part, but is com- ! pltely absent from the swamp. When a plant of the' scrambling fuchsia leaves the ground, it gives off many shoots, which may scramble* up among the branches of an overhanging shrub, or trail along the forest door for a distance of some sixteen feet.

The supplejack, probably the most notable Untie In New Zealand. is ranked,on account of the structure of its small green (lowers, borne in longspikes or rae-ein.es at the ends of shoots amongst the luembews of the lily family. It is a twining liaiie, distinguished from scrambling, root-climbing, and tendril-climbing lianos. Tho New Zealand jasmine, known to botanists as Barsonsia. another twining liano. belongs to the' periwinkle family, which in different parts of the world has about a thousand specie's, mostly in the tropics. Only two of them licking to Now Zealand. The (lowers of New Zealand jasmine, small. white anel sweetly scented, should be ill ovielenco .mainly on the outskirts of forests, in the early summer, and tlicy may continue until the autumn. New Zealand’s passion-flower, like' all the native specie's of clematis, is a tendrilclimbing linne. .It does not favour the; sunny south beyond Banks Peninsula. Its green' lloivor-i lusters, with white or yellow filaments, and it's showy bright orange or red many-seeclc.d, Which ripen in the autumn, adorn the outskirts of forests rather than their recesses. One of the strangest. New Ze.aland linin',s is a climbing fern, Lygodium, an elegant member of its great order. It is plentiful in forests from the North Capo to the Bay of Plenty on the east and Kaevhia on the west', but it does not seem to come further south. Its long twining stems often ascend treee to a fair height. In former times, ALaoris twisted tho atoms, which are tough and wiry, into

ropes, and used them to hold down the ■thatch on their houses. They know it as mango-mango.