Native plants

You will be amazed at the number of native plants living in Centennial Park, at least 150 different species.  These are listed below. For more detail on each species see the Plant Conservation Network website

List of native plants in Centennial Park

For more detail on each species see the Plant Conservation Network website

Kiekie – a common vine puts on a surprising show

According to Pat Morton’s notes, this vine only flowers every five to 10 years — not so nowadays – with good predator control we are seeing kiekie flower most years now.

One kiekie patch on the Kokekohe Track has had 15 flowers. Kiekie (Freycinetia banksii) is a many-branched woody vine with tufts of long leaves, highly-valued by Maori for weaving. The spectacular flowers appear at the ends of the tufts. Fruits form later and are prized rat and possum-food, so our fruiting kiekie show pest levels are declining.

Kiekie is dioecious — an individual plant has either male or female flowers. Male kiekie produce  beige-brown stamens, enclosed by whitish, succulent and fleshy bracts called tāwhara. Sweet-tasting tawhara were a highly desirable food. Female kiekie develop fruits called ureure which have green remnant flower parts on the surface. These fruits are also surrounded by fleshy bracts but they’re not as luscious as those of the male plants.