Enigmatic Parahebe “Bamboozle” Rediscovered!
Earlier this year the NZPCN website and newsletter Trilepidea reported that a new and rather distinctive Parahebe had been recognised from a cultivated plant that had been collected in a small forest remnant near the Woodhill Pine Forest, west of Auckland City by the 2007 NZPCN Life time Achievement Award Recipient Mr Geoff Davidson of Oratia Native Plant Nurseries.At the time of the report several surveys for the plant had already been undertaken at its only known location – all without success. During May of this year a larger team spent an entire day combing the forest remnant, and they too failed to find the elusive Parahebe.
However, rumour of the Parahebe and the unusual vegetation and associated species of the forest remnant had provided the main stimulus for the Auckland Botanical Society to visit the reserve on June 21. It was they, together with members of the local Forest and Bird branch, who successfully discovered a small population on the banks of a small stream within the forest remnant. Their find was not at the same site where Geoff Davidson had found his plant, suggesting that further populations are likely to be found in the forest.
Both Professor Phil Garnock-Jones and Dr Peter de Lange, who are now planning to describe the new Parahebe sometime in the next year, are delighted. “With something as unusual as this plant it’s always a worry when all you have to work with is a single cultivated specimen. Now with at least one wild population of Parahebe “Bamboozle” known, we are in a much better position to resolve its status” said Peter de Lange, who is both elated and irked with the find. It transpires that the population was found less than 2 metres away from where he had given up searching due to failing light during his survey there earlier in May.
Posted: 29/06/2008