THE PHORMIUM PLANT.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4748, 8 September 1924, Page 3

THE PHORMIUM PLANT.

SOME INTERESTING FACTS. INFORMATION FROM A BOTANIST. Observant farmers who happen to have some phormium tenax (New Zealand flax) growing on their land have no doubt noticed that in the summer time cattle eat the young leaves only,, but in the winter they chew the end or the big leaves and. pass by tha young leaves. The reason for this is one of those interesting characteristics of Nature which demonstrate the wisdom of the Divine Creator and man’s superfcial knowledge. It has only been by close study that botanists, such as Mr G. Smerl.e, of Ngarua, have been able to account for this and other happenings. If the water contained in the leaf of the flax plant should freeze the expansion would destroy the tissues and kill the leat A syrup or a saline solution will not freeze as readily as pure water, and when it does freeze the expansion is not so great. The flax plant during the winter nights changes the starch >n the leaf into isugar, saturates with water, and sends it to the tip of the leaf, where if it does freeze the damage will not be so great. Whether cattle know by instinct or learn by accident is not known, but it is obvious that they do know that m the winter time the tips of the leaves are the sweetest. "Bobtail” leaves, as the millers call them, are the result; but a greater harm is also done. The gum found near the bottom of the leaves is provided to protect the embryo leaves from damage by friction caused by the wind, but this gum is not sufficient if greater disturbance is caused, such as the leaves being chewed by cattle. The grazing of cattle in flax therefore causes bob-tail leaves, which require special treatment at the mill, and also destroys the embryo plants so that milleis have cause for their comment that the plants do not seem to thicken up. EVOLUTION IN CUTTING Under the old method of straight cutting the flax plaint died unless it had sufficient long leaves before the frosty weather commenced. A plant derives part of its food from the air. It has been found that if the flax plant is cut off level close to the ground the cut leaves will continue to grow and new leaves will come up between them: Until the new leaves are of sufficient size to collect their own food from the air this service will be performed by the old leaves. When no longer required to do this the old leaves die. Thus the plant, from a miller’s point of view, receives a setback. A greater setback, however, is caused if the cutting hag been

done diagonally to the ground level. Then the longer leaves only continue to grow, but these, being on the outside, are the oldest and, therefore, due shortly to die. This they do, and if the young leaves are not sufficiently established they have to wait until older leaves take the place of those that have died. Observing that it was the longest leaves that grew, Mr Smerle adopted the diamond cutting method. That is, to cut the plant diagonally up towards the middle. Thus the younger and more vigorous leaves were the ones to grow. By this method the setback was found to be reduced, and it became evident that if .the centre leaf was r.ot cut at all it would be there to collect the plant food. The next step in the evolution of cutting methods was the adoption of the present system of side-leaf cutting. In this all the leaves, except the middle leaf and the leaf on each side of it are harvested. The three leaves remaining enable the plant to continue growing without any setback, so that a harvest can be gathered every year, against every four years under the old method of straight cutting.