Native plants natural to the Canterbury plains
Introduction
Learn about native plants found in the Canterbury plains.Grown from seed collected from the Canterbury Plains Ecological District.
The history of the native vegetation of the Canterbury Plains is one of succession, destruction and regeneration. For many millions of years prior to European settlement the patterns of native vegetation were defined by the shifting rivers and creeks, floods, shingle build-up, alluvial deposits, soil damage and fire from both natural and human ignitions.
The plant life varied from:
- Prostrate herbs and grasses on the gravels.
- Tussocks and small shrubs on younger terraces.
- Woodland vegetation of kanuka, cabbage tree, olearia and kowhai on higher, older terraces.
- Dense woodlands of broad-leaf hardwoods such as karamu, lancewood, Hoheria angustifolia, Lophomyrtus obcordata, etc., on deeper soils.
- Podocarps on the fingers of deep, moist soils.
Today’s landscape has suffered over 150 years of intensive use and manipulation, not only for economic reasons but also to transform it into one that is English in character. This has been achieved by the introduction of exotic trees, shrubs and grasses, and grazing, drainage and cultivation of the land.
Planting species represented in these gardens will eventually provide a link between the native remnants of the Canterbury Plains, (kanuka forests of Eyrewell and Bankside Reserves), the foothills (beech forest of the Oxford-Ashley area) and the tall podocarp/hardwood forests of Riccarton Bush in Christchurch and Port Hills Reserves.
Species name and common name
T = threatened
R = rare
- Aciphylla subflabellata kuri kuri, spear grass
- Anemanthele lessoniana (R) hunangāmoho, wind grass, bamboo grass
- Austroderia richardii toetoe
- Brachyscome pinnata (T)
- Carex buchananii matirewa, cutty grass
- Carex comans tussock grass
- Carex flagellifera mānia, tussock grass
- Carmichaelia grandiflora
- Carmichaelia kirkii (T)
- Clematis marata
- Coprosma areolata
- Coprosma crassifolia
- Coprosma intertexta (R)
- Coprosma lucida shining karamü
- Coprosma obconica (R/T)
- Coprosma sp. ‘Taylorii’
- Coprosma propinqua mingimingi
- Coprosma robusta karamū
- Coprosma rotundifolia round-leaved coprosma
- Coprosma rugosa
- Coprosma pedicellata (R/T)
- Coprosma virescens
- Cordyline australis ti kōuka, cabbage tree
- Corokia cotoneaster korokio, corokia
- Elaeocarpus hookerianus pōkākā
- Festuca novae-zelandiae fescue grass
- Griselinia littoralis pāpāuma, broadleaf
- Helichrysum lanceolatum niniao
- Hypericum gramineum rolled-leaf hypericum
- Kunzea serotina kānuka
- Leptinella filiformis (T)
- Leptinella squallida
- Leptospermum scoparium mānuka, tea tree
- Lophomyrtus obcordata rōhutu, NZ myrtle
- Melicytus alpinus porcupine shrub
- Muehlenbeckia astonii (T) shrubby tororaro
- Myrsine australis māpou, matipou
- Myrsine divaricata weeping māpou
- Olearia aff. odorata (T) scented tree-daisy
- Ozothamus leptophylla tauhinu, golden cottonwood
- Phormium tenax harakeke, New Zealand flax
- Pittosporum eugenioides tarata, lemonwood
- Pittosporum tenuifolium kōhūhu
- Plagianthus regius mānatu, ribbonwood
- Poa cita wī, silver tussock
- Podocarpus totara tōtara
- Pomaderris phylicifolia var. ericifolia (T) tauhinu
- Prumnopitys taxifolia mataī, black pine
- Raukaua anomalus whauwhaupaku
- Sophora microphylla kōwhai
- Sophora prostrata dwarf kōwhai
- Teucrium parvifolium (T)