Forum Topic

  1. Rata Vines

  2. 24/04/2014 5:09:21 p.m. John Hornblow

    Hi
    I visited a reserve in central hawkes bay put aside by my great gran as her uncles cleared the land for farming. Are these rata vines and how old would date them as? They were at lease 15 cm in width.

  3. 24/04/2014 8:37:45 p.m. Peter de Lange

    Hi John - yes - probably - but I am sorry the image is not very clear so I can't be 100% certain - possibly Metrosideros fulgens or - even - M. colensoi. I have no idea how to date them beyond drilling them and counting the growth rings. Not a brilliant idea - perhaps someone else will know.

  4. 25/04/2014 3:13:53 p.m. Mike Thorsen

    Hi John, as Peter says not a great photo and its possibly Griselinia lucida or M. fulgens (which is pretty common in HB). I've never seen M. colensoi reach even half those dimensions, but its not totally out of the question either. Getting a leaf would help, sometimes there are fallen leaves around the base of the tree.

  5. 25/04/2014 3:58:45 p.m. John Hornblow

    Thanks, yes the photos where lousy due to the low light and my unsteady hand.

  6. 26/04/2014 8:46:36 a.m. Peter de Lange

    Metrosideros colensoi can and does reach those dimensions - next time you are in the North Island have a look in the eastern Wairarapa or around Waitomo.

  7. 26/04/2014 8:24:27 p.m. Mike Thorsen

    I got curious about this and I trawled through my botanical books and the only reference I can find on the dimensions of climbing rata is Alan in the Flora of NZ who states it grows at least 6m high which is less than useful! The notable tree register only has records from M. umbellata and M. robusta of the vine-like Metrosideros species. So I have no idea what the maximum stem diameter of M. colensoi is. I imagine there will be some data associated with forest monitoring, but I would be interested if anyone has any info

  8. 26/04/2014 10:31:12 p.m. Graeme Ure

    Hi John, I've been trying to work out where this is, assuming it is now a public reserve is it A'Deanes Bush? if so the only species listed are M. colensoi and M. diffusa with no Griselinia listed. http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/publications/Druce%20list%20202%2c.pdf

  9. 27/04/2014 9:10:33 a.m. Peter de Lange

    Mike - you of all people should know how inaccurate a Flora can be. I well the Flora dimensions given for what was Sporadanthus traversii being c.1.4m tall when in fact S.traversii s.s routinely reaches 2.5 and S. ferrugineus may reach 6m! In February Jeremy Rolfe and I saw Metrosideros colensoi of the dimensions seen in John's out of focus imagine! Not saying John's is that species but I will ask Jeremy to load them up. Finally as a past caver who used M. colensoi vines to abseil off around Waitomo I feel pretty confident that this species can, and does get very large.

  10. 27/04/2014 2:27:45 p.m. Peter de Lange

    Herewith.....Metrosideros colensoi at Moetapu Bush

  11. 27/04/2014 5:07:30 p.m. John Hornblow

    The history of this reserve at Elsthorpe http://goo.gl/maps/zmJ8L is mums granny was doing charity work in the east end, became unwell and was prescribed a long voyage. So she came out to see her uncles in Otane around 1850. They where busy clearing all the busy for farmland. She stayed and later had some of the bush on the farm put into a reserve.
    Ive uploaded all the photos to:
    https://plus.google.com/photos/101573658883058391214/albums/6006833307360905201

    http://goo.gl/maps/zmJ8L

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