22: Podocarps for Perpetuity
What if we planted more of our ancient podocarps for an Auckland 200 years from now?
Idea 3 expounding the virtues of our heritage plane tree avenues generated some debate around the planting of natives versus exotic plants in New Zealand’s towns and cities. A good discussion to have and one that, ultimately, should probably come down to the right tree in the right place. It certainly was not intended to suggest a universal preference for deciduous exotics over our native trees.
While natives may have the upper hand at present that certainly has not been the case historically. One of the reasons for this has been that we have actually known so little about cultivating our native plants in urban environments. This is often expressed as a false truism that natives are not well adjusted for city life, as if, like kiwis generally, they can never really feel at home in the big smoke.
It turns out this is not true. We have got a lot more experimental and adventurous with the planting of natives in Auckland recently. Taraire trees in shared spaces for example, and puriri trees within the lawns of the Daldy Street linear park, are two good examples that if they establish and endure, should add to the distinctiveness of these new public spaces in years to come.
Wouldn’t it be great if we took this a step further? Why can’t we find opportunities to cultivate more of our majestic podocarps within the city? Imagine mighty totara, or lofty kahikatea rising up to take their place on the Auckland skyline.
This may be more challenging, and we may need more experimentation and nursing to get them established, but the rewards could be great too. If successful, they could provide a new sense of scale and permanence that adds a successional and enduring quality to the greening of Auckland. Like the long term project in Wellington to replace pine with northern rata to emblazon the town belt in crimson each year, a conscious strategy to plant more podocarps in this city could grow deeper connections between this city and its native ecology that resonate and even touch on the sublime (think lofty kahikatea reaching up under the Grafton Bridge).
In some way, this could help us get us past that unhelpful binary that nature and the city are opposites that should never go together.
Stuart Houghton 2014
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If we thought about the long term 150 years ago we would be sitting on 1000+ year old podocarps in the city. Imagine that! Podocarps belong here, and seeing newly planted exotics just makes no sense to me. Do New Zealanders nowadays have any associations with English Oaks or American Redwoods? Eventually, one day we might learn to live with our surroundings, that includes living with our native plants, and not trying to recreate exotic environments from the UK or America. There should be no trouble establishing native trees local to that area, as they are used to the soil and weather conditions. One issue might be not much light with tall buildings around, but say totara seedlings are used to spending decades on the forest floor until enough light opens in the canopy for them to grow. The downside of natives in urban areas is that they are deciduous and a totara can be good at blocking light, but pruning could get around that.
+1
Four reasons to never plant natives: 1/ they drop crap all year round, 2/ they block light all year round, 3/ you miss out on autumn colour, 4/ some town planner will go an protect them so when you don’t want them any longer you will find you are stuck with them.
-1.
Four reasons to plant natives.
1. They’re beautiful and majestic.
2. They are unique and won’t be found in countless other cities around the world (as planes and oaks are)
4. They naturally sustain our native fauna.
5. We can create our own unique urban “look” with unique architecture and urban design that reflects our own culture and not a misplaced desire to be a European city on the other side of the world.
There’s more to natives than the forest giants.
The CMJ is actually very nicely planted with kawakawa, cabbage trees, titoki, manuka etc.
They’re all fairly graceful and don’t grow super high.
If you’re dozy enough to plant a kahikatea or a totara in a small space then yeah, you might find you have a problem 50 years later.
If you can mass plant them on public property they are alright. But as individual specimens in a private garden you can do a hell of a lot better, same goes for street trees- remember the blossom in Queen St before some tree fascist decided they all had to be axed to make way for some mangy looking nikau. As for predicting what you might want in 50 years well good luck with that- pull that stunt off and you will be very rich indeed. Half the grief over in-fill was that everyone had planted a tree in their backyard and infill required those trees to be axed. The fault wasn’t developers it was planners and the zoning they applied.
You lost the argument with your Godwin-style ranting right there. Calling a decision to axe some trees, whether you agree with it or not as “facist” – and then arguing that protecting another tree so it can’t be hacked down is ALSO horrible and will spell the death of something (maybe free enterprise or somesuch)… no coherence in your logic, and no understanding that a city is a constantly changing environment, and if you don’t like planners or politicians to remove one tree and plant another, you can go to the voting booth and make your displeasure known.
But no. Facist name-calling. Whoo.
Because you cant see a rational position that says individual people are best placed to decide what trees they will plant or keep on their own private property while taking an interest in trees that exist in public spaces in which they actually have share? You appear to take a contrary view that says the community decides what stays on private property but lets not have any criticism of how the Council wipes out mature trees that are causing no problems because their landscape architect says that they are out of fashion this season.
A real issue with kahikatea, totara, and other large podocarps is the root structure. If you ever go into the bush and look at the old growth trees, the roots extend out significantly – 8 to 10 m from the trunk. Not small roots either. Not particuarly suited for an urban environment.
They’re possible for specific green spaces – I’m thinking of the tropical plantings in Brisbane’s Southbank for example, but nowhere near infrastructure.
I disagree about not being good for individual specimens in private gardens. I grew up in New Plymouth – some wonderful 50-80 year old rimu, totara (mostly var. “aurea”) and kauri dot the older suburban areas.
Scott has a very good point as well – plant the smaller trees as well. Horoeka/lancewood, rewarewa, puka (Meryta sinclairii) and toatoa are smaller, but still “architectural” trees, as well as the palms, ferns and cordylines.
Matt
Any species of tree will have its pros and cons and may be suitable somewhere or other in the city. I’m all for multicultural tree planting guided by practicality.
Exactly Adrian. Where would this country be if we’d applied this obsession with things native to people? New Zealand would be New Guinea. We live in a big, wide, wonderful world and
we should showcase the best of it, not just the best from here.
Any planting of native trees should be thought out carefully before commencing.
Examples of bad plantings can be seen in many locations. For me two of the worst are the kauri planted along edges and centre median on Glenfield Road and the kauri planting in downtown square. In both cases the selection of species is totally inappropriate. In their natural state they are forest trees often in damp areas with extensive surface feeding roots. Planting of these trees in sealed dry and exposed sites will result in unhealthy specimens requiring high maintenance let alone the cost of the original trees. The suggestion of kaihikatea in the skyline is not sensible as they are lowland forest and wetland trees so not suited to urban sites.
It seems we plant nothing but native scrub on every new Auckland site. We need trees. Big trees, grand trees, avenues of trees. Turangi has more beautiful trees lining its streets than Auckland does. Why do we have this dull insistence on native scrub lining every motorway? Native trees are great in ideal locations, especially if planted in a group … but lets not bury our heads in the planting mix. Franklin Road looks amazing all year around with it’s exotic canopy. Why not try and recrerate more of that lush thinking and less of the tragic, wind battered nikau palms up Queen Street
They do it because the “sense of place” thing became fashionable. The argument was that with exotics you could be anywhere in the world but natives told you you were here. I don’t know about you but I actually already knew where I was and don’t rely on plants to tell me. For me the biggest shame is the impact it has on native birds. Native bush is fine for birds if you plant a huge acreage but if you only have the ribbon between other urban activities then we should be planting trees that provide plenty of sustenance. Anyone who has seen a Tui tree planted next to a kowhai knows what I mean. The Tui tree in flower will have drunk birds virtually dog-fighting each other for nectar.
It is simply short sighted to remove exotics as if they are something “bad” and insist only native trees are planted. Why can they not exist together? I agree that pinus radiata, macrocarpa and norfolk pine can sometimes be a pain in the stump but anyone who cannot see beauty in the magnificent old exotics you see throughout Cornwall Park (thriving alongside natives) have splinters in their brains.
I’ve just coined a word for the fashion, mfwic: dendroxenophobia (dendro – tree; xeno – foreign; phobia – fear) – an irrational aversion to trees from overseas.
Not knowing much about trees, all my life I thought the tui tree was the kowhai. Thanks for enlightening me.
America has become a great country because they have a long tradition of seeking out the best people, regardless of where they were born. We should do the same. Our gardeners should pick the best trees.