The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

Hello all, has anyone tried drinking a tea made from the leaves of this plant. I have a book on Maori medicine which claims it can be used similarly to other mint plants for this purpose. I would love to hear from anyone with first-hand experience how it tasted.

Yup - tastes fine and can also be eaten raw - but its a small plant and I would be worried if people went out and harvested it from the wild as it is becoming a threatened plant (and on a serious decline pathway in the northern North Island). You can buy plants Alex from Oratia Native Plant Nursery - in Auckland phone book.

Thanks Peter. Any ideas on why it's declining in the wild (as it seems from the factsheet and other sources that it grows very well)? I will get in touch with Oratia and see if they have any so I can try some of the tea! Thanks again for your reply.

See here: http://www.oratianatives.co.nz/catalogue_item.php?products_code=MENTCUNN

Its not clear Alex - but the decline seems to be due to the spread of weeds such as kikuyu and paspalum (and what not) into its coastal habitats (and probably other weeds). It does not cope well with much competition, nor our penchant for building mansions (i.e modern "baches") on its preferred coastal habitats. I gather its more common in the montane and subalpine parts of the South Island. Also it seems to have always been naturally scarce in the coastal portion of the southern North Island. All we know is that it has declined markedly over the last 20 years from large parts of the coastal northern North Island. I used to see it frequently but rarely do I see it now when I traverse this portion of its former haunts. Like so many of our threatened plants someone needs to study why its in decline - and we have so few people able to or willing to do that these days. This would be a good M.Sc. or B.Sc. (hons) study I feel.

Wherever I've seen it in montane forests it is usually pretty scarce.

From my observations its still relatively common in the montane valleys of western Otago/ Southern Lakes area, especially in scrubby avalanche prone areas below the bushline, but doesn't seem to be at all common in wetter Fiordland. I don't doubt that introduced competitors may be the main reason for decline, but I wonder if rainfall changes in recent years may have also affected the decline in Northland and other areas?