Elingamita

Forest and Bird, Volume 15, Issue 1, 1 February 1984, Page 36

Elingamita

by

Botanist, Auckland Museum

Anthony Wright,

AT THE THREE KINGS ISLANDS

A visit to rugged little West Island in the Three Kings Group in December of last year afforded the first ever opportunity for the rare Elingamita johnsonii to be photographed in the wild. With its glossy karaka-like leaves and spectacular bunches of bright red berries, it has great potential as a garden plant.

Inflorescence of Elingamita johnsonii. The Three Kings Islands lie some forty kilometres from the northern tip of the North Island and are little visited due to the difficulty of landing on their steep cliffs from the surrounding tempestuous seas. The four main islands support at least ten endemic species of plants — that is, species known to grow naturally in no other place. Of these endemics, two are represented by single plants only: Tecomanthe speciosa and Pennantia baylisiana. The former, a vigorous liane, is widely cultivated on mainland New Zealand. The latter is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the world’s rarest tree. Not only is the Pennantia reduced to a single tree, but that tree is female. The species is apparently dioecious — that is, male and female flowers are produced on different plants — and no male tree survives to pollinate the lone female. But the record for the least viewed tree must go to Elingamita johnsonii. Confined to tiny West Island in the Three Kings Group, the genus is named after the steamship Elingamite which was wrecked on West Island in 1902 with considerable loss of life. The species name commemorates Major Magnus Johnson, its discoverer. After the Elingamite wreck, pressure was brought to bear on the Government by shipping interests to erect a lighthouse on West Island. Marine Department officers investigated, and their report clearly illustrates the difficulties

associated with landing on the island. They said ‘The Western Islet is an extremely precipitous rock of such a nature that it would be hazardous and dangerous to land on it, and after landing it would need an experienced mountaineer to scale it. To erect a light would be a difficult and tedious task, and to locate a staff there to attend to it would practically make them prisoners’. In their opinion, landings might be possible one day a month on average! After several unsuccessful attempts, Major Johnson succeeded in landing on West Island in January 1950. He made a comprehensive collection of plants which was handed to Professor Geoff Baylis of Otago University, who has undertaken the bulk of the botanical research done on the Kings. Amongst these specimens was a new species, a member of the family Myrsinaceae, but not belonging to any known genus. Johnson returned to West Island with Baylis in January of the next year to collect further material. Photography was impossible as the landing was made in dense fog, later described by Baylis (1958) as ‘depressingly reminiscent of the circumstances primarily responsible for the wreck of the Elingamite about fifty years previously’. Following this visit, Baylis (1951) formally described the new species. He noted that it was represented by ‘perhaps a dozen trees ... members of a windswept forest scrub in which the true habit cannot be seen’. All this history led our 1982 Offshore Islands Research Group party to have small hopes of landing on West Island, but we were lucky enough to get ashore (‘acliff’ might be a better term!) at the first attempt. No fog this time — we were blessed with early summer sun, so out came the cameras. The first plant was spotted in low scrub just above the wreck of the Elingamite. Although superficially similar to karaka, Elingamita has slightly lighter green leaves and very thick fleshy looking branchlets. However, one sight of the fruit (a spectacular bright red colour when ripe) makes it obvious that this is a very different species. This first-found plant bore flower panicles, bunches of green fruit and remnants of bunches of ripe red fruit, indicating the probability of a two year cycle from flowering to fruit maturity. Climbing up through the dense two metre high ‘petrel scrub’ of flax, taupata and Hymenanthera novaezelandiae through which odd Elingamita trees were scattered, we came to a small area of pohutukawa forest near the summit of the island. The pohutukawas provided a more or less continuous canopy some 10-12 metres high, beneath which was an understorey of Elingamita from 2-4 metres high. Standing in one spot twelve mature trees were counted, each bearing hanging bunches of ripe red fruit. Dozens of seedlings were found in the rich, light humus between the rocks — there were

nine growing in an area just three centimetres square where a bunch of berries must have dropped. The seedlings also possess a conspicuously thickened, fleshy looking stem. Surprisingly, there was no evidence of birds eating the ripe fruit. Although plants were found over an area several hundred metres square, they have not yet been dispersed to all suitable looking habitats on West Island. It remains to be seen whether birds will eat the berries, and if so, how long it takes before Elingamita is established on other islands in the Three Kings. It was good news to be able to report that the population of this rare and little known plant was healthy and expanding. Some seed was brought back to Auckland, and plants will eventually be available through the nursery trade. yt

References Baylis, G. T. S. 1951: Elingamita (Myrsinaceae) a new monotypic genus from West Island, Three Kings. Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum 4(2): 99-102. Baylis, G. T. S. 1958: A botanical survey of the small islands of the Three Kings Group. Records of the Auckland Institute and Museum 5(1&2): 1-12.