Thread: Native plant identification

I'm keen to increase my practical plant id skills. In broad terms, I want to work on a list of 5-10 of the most important plants in the following categories:

Deer food:

Seven Finger / Pate / Schefflera digitata
Five Finger / Whauwhaupaku / Pseudopanax arboreus
NZ Broadleaf / Kapuka / Griselinia littoralis

Nasty

Gorse / ??? / Ulex europaeus
Bushmans Lawer / Onga Onga / Urtica Ferox
??? / Tutu / Coriaria arborea
Cutty grass / Toetoe / Austroderia

Usefull / Medicinal

Dock / ??? / ???
??? / Kawa Kawa / ???

Edible (human)

Fern root / Aruhe / ???
??? / Hinau / Elaeocarpus dentatus
??? / Tawa / Beilschmiedia tawa
??? / Kiekie / Freycinetia banksii
Black tree fern / Mamaku / Cyathea medullaris

Pls help me flesh out the lists...

Pepper plant....

EBF...whitey wood; mahoe (in these parts) boil the tip leaves...taste like cabbage...

you call it stinkwood, here it is called stinking coprosma (only stinks when the foliage has wilted...smells like faecal matter)

Dougie wrote...
Sorry slight off topic and this can be tidied up later, but has anyone seen that program (perhaps it was just the one episode?) about NZ 'native' birds and the whole Gwandana land / Zealandia / New Zealand movement of land etc..? It was really interesting but I wish they had a similar thing for plants!! It was about the evolution of birds and how for example the Kiwi actually started in Aussy.

Not possible, Dougie, no Kiwi started in Australia, I will not have it

Then you have the vegetation on Campbell's Island...unbelievable...try the book Campbell Island - Land of the Blue Sunflower by Derek Fell, published by Bateman.

EBF, are you referring to Red Dock? Rumex aquaticus.
Sow thistle...Sonchus arvensis...
Watercress...Nasturtium officinale

Originally Posted by EeeBees

EBF, are you referring to Red Dock? Rumex aquaticus.
Sow thistle...Sonchus arvensis...
Watercress...Nasturtium officinale

tx EeeBees, re Dock, don't think so, more likely to be Native (flexuosus) or Common (obtusifolius), will check with a botanist friend

Dougie, you mean Kawa Kawa right ? Is that the "English" name ?

Might be. It's edible, looks like a spotty red and green leaf on shrubby bushes, can be big but usually only sort of 1sm at largest. Chew on the lovely leaves and have a burning mouth for a few minutes! Like a mouth full of pepper.

EDIT it's not the same thing, still can't find the other name for pepper plant.

I think the plant I am talking about is Horopito. Not sure if it's actually good for anything other than pranking your mates

naa, kawa kawa is heart shaped green leaves with lots of holes in them from where the kawakawa looper has eaten it. the moe holes, the spicier it is. good for toothache and upset tummy. also burn wet leaves as insecticide and sandfly repellant. very cool plant.

Horopito can be used to give a pepper type taste to food. Have used it on trips. Use SPARINGLY!

It's used for quite a few other medicinal purposes, google tells me

Might want to add Koromiko & Manuka to the medical list .

nice thread,look forward to this one going for a while and learning

Originally Posted by Chris

Might want to add Koromiko & Manuka to the medical list .

Chris, for Koromiko, do you mean Hebe salicifolia or Hebe stricta ?

1 for the deer food list is Mahoe . Deer go crazy on it after the roar & at other times of year .Seems there is something in it they need after ,weather a tonic or a mineral /trace element in it.