Fauna Recovery New Zealand

Euphrasia cuneata

Chris Horne, Barbara Mitcalfe and Geoff Walls listed this Euphrasia during their survey of 2012. I’m not sure where they found it, but I first saw a single plant as recently as 4 years ago on a new track we put in. Since then it has self-seeded about 20 metres along the track and is strictly “don’t trim”.

This sub-shrub is found throughout the North Island, into the Marlborough Sounds and pops up at Lake Ellesmere. It’s a root parasite but does photosynthesise for itself also. Euphrasias are very difficult to grow but this one is said to be the easiest of them.

The track is lit up with their beautiful flowers in autumn. You might well find some for yourself around now (April) if you live in range. Open country where it won’t be out-competed, sea level to alpine, and track sides or road cuttings are good places to look.

(Part of an ongoing effort to photograph all the vascular plants on the island. Each species will get a page when I get enough reasonable photos.)

Leptecophylla juniperina ssp juniperina

This is the pricklier of the two plants known as mingimingi on Puangiangi. It’s slightly the worse hand-hold of the two, although you know you are in trouble anyway when you are happy with a mingimingi to hold on to. This one is very common and is usually a coloniser. The other one, Leucopogon fasciculatus, seems to be more a sub-canopy shrub in the drier parts of the forest on the island. Prickly mingimingi is common throughout the country.

A coloniser species, along with tauhinu behind it

It’s very attractive from a respectful distance, with the contrasting new foliage in spring and the (mainly) autumn fruits being the standouts.

The fruits come in different colours, although they are near enough the same on a given shrub. We can see white, pink and red fruits and the following photos are from shrubs within 10 metres of one another.