Endemic, invasive — ti kouka, pink ragwort

Ti kouka, the New Zealand cabbage tree, has a special place in the culture of Aotearoa, and few New Zealanders would fail to feel a twinge of homesickness on seeing an exiled cabbage tree in a foreign land.

Often survivors where everything else has given way to the dreadful desert of productive pasture, these plants prefer swamps and wetlands. Their most characteristic feature is probably the multiple, leafy heads, but the trunk has its own rough, gnarly charm. This is a young tree on the true right bank of the Waitotara river (the same as in the photo I posted for International Rock Flipping Day); older trees have thicker trunks which are often hollow. The bright flowers in the background are the invasive weed, pink ragwort (Senecio glastifolius).

All content © 2009 Pete McGregor