New Zealand Native Plants

Forest and Bird, Issue 267, 1 February 1993, Page 43

New Zealand Native Plants

Mark Bellingham

by Bruce Treeby (The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand) 1992, 570pp, $150 This is not just a book but a complete correspondence course on New Zealand native plants, their ecology, propagation, planting and place in the natural

and cultural landscape. This course will open up a whole new world of knowledge on the place and role of native plants. The material is extensive — it comes in two ringbinders, with seven learning units, evaluation sheets, field notebook, background information and a tutor at the Open Polytechnic (with a free phone line). The outline at the front of the course includes a flow chart of the different sections and how they fit together. It includes information about the course tutor — Bruce Treeby, a life member of the NZ Farm Forestry Association and active conservationist, with 30 years of teaching courses on tree crops, farm forestry, plant propagation and organics. The course units are excellent in their simplicity of presentation and depth of coverage. The protection section, for example, covers land protection, legal protection and physical protection of plants from possums, goats and other browsers. It includes material on how to control possums, rodents and other pests such as stoats, weasels, cats and wasps. The text is clearly illustrated with photographs, line drawings and beautiful woodcuts. Those of us involved in revegetation schemes or raising plants at home will find the plant propagation chapter invaluable. It’s all here — nursery layout and gear, seed collection, growing-in containers, cuttings, raising plants from forest duff and planting out. Treeby’s revegetation flow charts are interesting and helpful for planning revegetation, providing a recipe for transforming gorse, grassland, bracken or manuka into mature forest. You can select the route you wish to take — do nothing, plant only, plant and spray, or plant, cut and spray — and the flow charts give you a step-by-step guide. If you are interested in any aspect of native plants and want to extend your knowledge, this is the way to do it. You can do the course in your own time and at home, and at the end you will have what is possibly the most complete reference set there is on New Zealand native plants.