Wetland herb gratiola concinna in its unassuming winter guise. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
A tiny and rare native wetland plant is being translocated to Taranaki's Rotokare Sanctuary in a unique homecoming of sorts.
Gratiola concinna is nationally-endangered and under threat from habitat loss and introduced weeds.
In Taranaki, the humble herb is currently only found on the Hooper family farm at Oeo, at the edge of Te Papakura o Taranaki / Egmont National Park.
It was discovered there in 1996 when the late Ian Hooper offered to sell part of his South Taranaki dairy farm to the Department of Conservation.
DOC botanist Jim Clarkson said that led to a detailed investigation of the area.
DOC botanist Jim Clarkson. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
"There were two other individuals Colin Ogle and John Barkler who came to the site and their job was to access the quality of the bush and so they came here and made a complete plant list of everything that was here and they found quite a few special plants and this plant gratiola concinna was one of them."
It was an unassuming flora.
"So, it's just a small, very small herb and the leaf size is really small and when you first see it you sort of probably don't take a lot of notice of it. It's when it's flowering it has this beautiful trumpet flower on the end and it's really special, but the thing that is special is the fact that there is not much of it around these days and it is actually very rare."
Ian Hooper's son, Phil, said the family had been actively involved in the plant's management ever since in was discovered.
"It requires a quite unique band of circumstances for it to survive, so one of the things is you can't drain the area. So, we've fenced off this area, which is our land here, we've actually fenced this whole area off and retired it. That's one of the things, and you've got to have a bit of light coming through, so we actually clear away some of the weeds now and then."
Phil, a teacher, said the plant even enjoyed a visit from stock from time, so his wife Lyneyre - the farmer in the family - obliged them.
"It also needs to have water, but pools of water, and that's where the pugging of the stock coming through comes in. So, I think Lyneyre only put the stock in here twice in one year. Just a small mob and they come through and they hoof it over and out they go and everyone's happy, you know."
It was a practice that had Clarkson's sign off.
About 20 plants were being transferred to Rotokare in the first of what was hoped would be many translocations.
But Clarkson explained exactly how to harvest gratiola - which lay in mats on the sodden forest floor amongst kahikatea trees - was still a work in progress.
"So, I'm cutting around the edge and I'm trying to make a boundary to the plug - that we are actually going to take out - and it's really difficult to see where the plants are rooting into the ground. That's the hardest part really, trying to figure out where the rooting is ... there's something else here a bit of wood or something just there."
Rotokare conservation manager Fiona Gordon said translocating the plant to the sanctuary had special meaning.
Rotokare conservation manager Fiona Gordon. Photo: RNZ / Robin Martin
"The only other know record of gratiola concinna in Taranaki was in the Ngaere swamp complex and Rotokare is the largest remnant of that formally huge swamp complex, so it's really significant to be able to return that back to its former range. So, it is a bit of a homecoming today."
She admitted some of the nosey neighbours at the fenced sanctuary could be a challenge.
"Pukeko are very fastidious gardeners. They love to keep their home space tidy and if there's something new in an environment they are used to they will probably try and pull it out.
"So, for some of the plants were are going to be moving to Rotokare we are going to have a little bit of a pukeko barrier to try and keep them out of those spaces just to stop them doing their housekeeping and give the plants a chance to get set up."
The sighting of gratiola concinna in the Ngaere swamp complex dated back to 1886.
Spokesperson for Ngāti Tupaia, mana whenua of the area where Rotokare was located, Tane Houston, said the hapu was happy the sanctuary could play a role in protecting another threatened species.
"Ngāti Tupaia are proud of the team at the reserve and will continue to support these efforts to do right by the natural environment and all the important life forms within it."
He hoped Rotokare could help secure the regional survival of gratiola concinna.