Update On Kermadec Koromiko
That plant found by goat hunter Ray Scrimgeour was for a long time the only example known of this Raoul Island endemic. In 1999 a further 51 plants were reported from the island. Now 450 wild adult plants are known.Kermadec koromiko (Hebe breviracemosa) is not the most spectacular of New Zealand’s 90 or so species, the short-flowered racemes from which it takes it species epithet are hardly conspicuous, and the pale lilac flowers are easily missed amongst the larger leaves. However, what constitutes an attractive plant is simply a matter of personal taste and not an issue of concern here, more interesting by far is the fact that at one time this plant was regarded as Extinct. Then in 1983, in circumstances only briefly drawn to public attention in the New Zealand Herald Ray Scrimgeour stumbled upon a plant of this “extinct” species while tracking a goat across Hutchinson’s Buff, at the north-western end of Raoul Island. A cutting from that plant was sent to the University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand, where it was successfully struck by Mr Tony Palmer and so a species believed to be extinct was back again in the blink of eye and its future assured.
Well that’s how we’d like the story to go anyway. Reality is much harsher. Graham Hutchins view in his book “Hebes here and there” (1997, Hutchins & Davies, Berkshire), which at the time of that books publication were quite inaccurate, ended up, most ironically, being quite correct for this species did not “compete well in the garden” with other “more showy hebes…[and so it has been]…neglected and [almost] lost to cultivation”. Indeed in 2005 needing material for DNA sequencing I was horrified to find out that very few people stocked the species in New Zealand, and that much of what I saw was now hybrid material. So here at least this species has not fared well, proving that if we are going to get serious about ex-situ conservation we had better rethink our attitudes to dealing with ex-situ stocks. Remember too it is not only “ugly” plants that suffer in this way for kakabeak (Clianthus puniceus) too has been all but replaced in gardens by its close relative C. maximus sold as ‘Kaka King’. The faddism associated with horticulture is indeed a tricky beast to harness for conservation purposes.
On Raoul Island assertaining an exact status of Kermadec koromiko has always been fraught by the problems of distance and communication, and the fact that staff placed on the island are primarily concerned with weed management, so have little time for much of anything else. Nevertheless in 2007 it was estimated that there were 200 wild plants and so the species was listed as “Threatened/Nationally Critical”. In May 2009 I briefly visited Raoul and was delighted to be shown 350 wild plants in just one ravine system, further populations exist in other ravine systems along the north and south sides of the massive Hutchinson’s Bluff promontory.
It seems likely that Kermadec koromiko is now secure in its home ground. Observations of these wild plants also helped dispel understandable misconceptions. One needs to remember that virtually everything we know about this plant to date has been based on the type specimen, a few – very old – scrappy gatherings, and live material all derived from the single plant found on Raoul in 1983. Armed with a much better range of specimens it was interesting to observe wide variation in leaf shape and size, sinus size, raceme length and growth habit. Hopefully these observations show that the wild population is more genetically diverse than had been believed. Once cutting grown accessions from these grown in New Zealand are genetically assayed we should know more.
Peter J. de Lange
Posted: 05/08/2009