Forest Haiku

 

Two of my haiku were published in a fine line Spring 2021, the magazine of the New Zealand Poetry Society. 

About haiku 

Maybe you learned to write haiku at school and were told haiku were poems of three lines with 5 -7 -5 syllables. Today haiku can be 2 or 3 lines and are almost always less than 17 syllables. Haiku use strong images to convey the essence of a moment in nature.

Notes: Krummholz is a word that English language has borrowed from German to mean a tree that is stunted, bent or twisted. It wasn't that easy finding photos that were an exact match, as these haiku were written about moments of seeing that weren't necessarily captured by a camera.

Find out more about writing haiku

This is written as a guide for teachers, but is useful for anyone considering writing haiku, especially the definition and explanation of haiku on page 3:

https://poetrysocietynz.files.wordpress.com/2016/07/learning-to-write-haiku-a-teachers-guide-k-raine.pdf

A Forest Sanctuary - finding sanctuary at Bushy Park

2020 has turned out to be a year in which we've all had to find sanctuary at home. Even once lockdown restrictions lifted we've continued to seek out sanctuary close to home rather than farther afield. With this in mind, I set out to Bushy Park - Tarapuruhi near Whanganui, about 2-3 hours drive from my home.

Bushy Park 

Bushy Park has long been a Forest and Bird reserve, but perhaps what's less well known is that it has been a fenced sanctuary since 2005. (Fenced sanctuaries have pest proof fences around them which are designed to keep out possums, stoats, rats and other introduced pest mammals.) Sanctuaries are often thought of as safe havens for endangered birds and other native animals, however, a standout of the Bushy Park experience is the ancient lowland forest and its spectacular trees.

A giant Northern rata loaded with epiphytes

Autumn Leaf Study in New Zealand - leaf art, leaf scavenger hunts and more

Autumn around the world is a time that lends itself to investigate leaves, through making leaf art, going on a leaf scavenger hunt and learning about trees and their leaves.

Yet in New Zealand where almost every native tree is evergreen, the emphasis on trees changing colour and losing they leaves could seem to favour introduced trees over native trees. Here are some activities and ideas for studying native tree leaves in New Zealand. Autumn is still a good time to study leaves as it is interesting to compare deciduous and evergreen trees.

ACTIVITY: Go on a leaf hunt to find different colour leaves and identify whether trees are evergreen or deciduous. 

Deciduous trees - those that lose their leaves in autumn - do so to survive a cold winter, saving energy and getting rid of leaves that might pick up diseases. The trees draw back into their branches and trunk all the goodness that was in the leaves, such as water, nutrients and the green substance chlorophyll. So the leaves change colour, dry out and fall.

Native Trees and Plants of New Zealand Brought Vividly to Life

The act of identifying and naming plants changes the way we see the bush. No longer is it a tangle of different greens, a confusing mass of different shape leaves. Bark, flowers, berries, leaves, all provide clues about the trees in the canopy above or help us distinguish the different plants in the understorey.  Once we can tell them apart the bush, wetlands, coast all begin to look very different to our eyes.

But learning about native plants even for those regularly in the bush can be a slow process. Among my Forest and Bird tramping group, there are repeated discussions as we remind ourselves about the differences between mataī and miro; mānuka and kānuka; horopito and toropapa. (Perhaps we can be forgiven for struggling to tell the latter two apart, as page 30 of The Meaning of Trees tells me this is likely to be down to plant mimicry.) 

In the end, it is rich descriptions and stories that help us remember the differences and characteristics. Toetoe has drooping flowers, those of pampas are erect and spear-like. Rangiora is the bushman’s friend, its thick leaves were handy for toilet paper or writing notes on. The blood red colour below the flaking bark of mataī was seen in some traditions as representing the blood of Tunaroa, the eel god slain by Māui. 

The Meaning of Trees: the history and uses of New Zealand’s native plants by Robert Vennell is a treasure trove of such rich descriptions and stories of our native trees, shrubs and and other plants such as vines, flax, bracken and even bull kelp. The book rewards repeated reading, and dipping into, as each time something new stands out, a whakataukī, a legend, or maybe where it got its name.

New Zealand Nature Hunt: list to download

Many Nature Hunt/Scavenger Hunts just don't match the New Zealand forest. So watching what the children found on the Bioblitz at Horoeka Reserve, inspired me to come up with a New Zealand Nature Hunt for kids.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE NATURE HUNT 

This Nature Hunt would be perfect for Horoeka Scenic Reserve but would also be a good challenge for trips to Otari/Wilton's Bush, Porirua Scenic Reserve, Percy Scenic Reserve, Belmont Regional Park and many other locations in Greater Wellington and further afield. 

When we go on Nature Hunts in native forest all we take home are photos and memories, rather than taking or damaging living things. 

"In the Bush: explore and discover New Zealand's native forests" is a useful reference for identifying animals and plants in our native forests.

Unusual Trees of Aotearoa - cauliflory and ramiflory

My recent blogpost about kohekohe trees got a lot of interest, with people particularly curious about cauliflory.

Flowering kohekohe trees

caulifory describes trees that flower from the trunk and major branches rather than the more common flowering from the tips of branches among the leaves

Autumn Nature Walk - a splendid kohekohe year

Kohekohe flowers

Cascades of blooms signal a splendid flowering year for the kohekohe. It's time to get out into our lowland coastal forests and enjoy the flowers and marvel at their abundance. They are already flowering now and should go on flowering through into June.

Autumn - April and May nature study ideas

We've had a wet and stormy summer, so a sunny day in autumn is a day not to be missed. We pack camera and binoculars and head off in to the outdoors.

The first think we notice is how long (and strange) our shadows are. In autumn and winter, our part of the world (the southern hemisphere) tilts away from the sun causing shorter days but also changing the angle of the sun.

As we walk the children play shadow games - positioning their shadows so they stand on our shadow shoulders, or turning us into giants. It reminds me that autumn is a good time to make sundials and talk about shadows.

Autumn is a good time to encourage children to observe the weather as it changes every day - from sun to rain, wind to stillness, storms to fine weather.

Return to Rakiura - Stewart Island

Sunrise from Fred's Camp

Rakiura means 'glowing skies' and the soft pastel colours in the sky around Stewart Island on my recent visit showed again and again the appropriateness of this Maori place name. Views like this sunrise above were nearly enough to turn this writer to taking up water-colour painting!

Weeds or Wild Flowers - What do we See?

One person's weed is another person's garden flower. I've seen the delight in the eye of visitors from Europe when they saw what they took to be garden flowers such as white Arum lilies (Zantedeschia) or blue Agapanthus flowering by our roadsides.

Arum Lilies spreading alongside a pathway

It's not just visitors who see them as delightful wild flowers or as garden plants, lots of locals do too. But how we see them doesn't alter the fact that these and many other imported plants grow, and spread, like wild fire in New Zealand's climate. They encroach on dunes, on bush remnants, on stream banks pushing out native plants and reducing our,  and therefore the world's, biodiversity.

The Importance of Trees

On the Kapakapanui track some joker has put up a Give Way sign where the track diverges, yet I've never met another party here to give way to.

 I like to think of it as a reminder that we need trees and had better give way to them!

Give way to ... Trees

Seeing Plants with New Eyes - learning the language of plants

Gillian Candler reviews the NMIT Plant Identification course

An informative guided walk at Otari/Wilton's Bush last year spurred me on to join the local Botanical Society. I’m a children’s author so sometimes take a childlike view of things, I get excited by Hen and Chicken’s Ferns

Hen and Chickens Fern

and Puriri moths in Putaputaweta trees, I love the statuesque Wheki-ponga that look like people wearing cloaks and I delight at discovering hanging orchids.  But listening to members of the Botanical Society I often feel like a stranger in a foreign land who can only say ‘hello’ and ‘goodbye’ in that language, a good conversation being out of the question.

Visiting New Zealand's Forest Giants in Waipoua Forest

White skeletons stand out starkly among the green of the Waipoua Forest - they are dead kauri trees. As if the tree-felling, milling, gum collecting and land clearing weren't enough to put this giant tree in danger, sadly they are now succumbing to a silent fungus-like disease called kauri die-back.

White branches indicate kauri die-back

A long overdue visit to the far North, meant that it was close to 20 years since I last visited the forest giants Tane Mahuta and Te Matua Ngahere as well as the Four Sisters. Because kauri only grow in the north of the North Island they seemed exotic to us, rare beings, even then there were only a few giant specimens standing. Still the forest appeared lush and the kauri mighty.

Today the giant Tane Mahuta (52 metres high) and Te Matua Ngahere are still impressive.

Forest and Bird Walks in Wellington - from my journal

It's spring and heading into tramping season. Thanks to the longer days and warmer weather (and the fact that I'm between books) I've been able to go out with Forest and Bird on a lot of day walks. Here's a sample from my nature journal of what I've observed.

Puriri moth

WEDNESDAY 8th - KARAPOTI

Tramping out from seeing  the Giant Rata, a puriri moth was found by a fellow tramper on the pathway. He picked it up to move it to safety.  This is the first time I've seen a live puriri moth so I was pretty excited by this find. What a gorgeous mossy green and what big eyes it has!

Pilgrimage to a Tree - the largest known Northern Rata

In dense bush north of Wellington stands the truly awesome giant Karapoti Rata.

Forest and Bird trampers and the Karapoti Rata

Thought to be over 1000 years old, it is 39 metres high and has a girth or circumference of over 15m. To read about who measured it, see The New Zealand Tree Register. The register tells you the GPS location of the tree. But it's one thing to know the location, it's quite another to find the tree in the forest.

Mangaone Walkway - one of the best local bushwalks for family and friends

A short drive from Waikanae, tucked away behind the hills, at the end of the winding Managone South Road is one of the best easy bushwalks on the Kapiti Coast.

Features of this walk that make it a good one to introduce overseas visitors, non-tramping friends, children and grandchildren to the delights of bushwalks.

It starts with a Swing Bridge.

Nature Walks at Otari Wilton's Bush

Otari-Wilton's Bush is a Wellington treasure. Not only has New Zealand's native bush been preserved here, but special gardens hold a collection of plant treasures from around New Zealand. I've always thought of this as a great place to bring children to romp around in the bush, it's wild but not so wild that you could get horribly lost. Last year when I came here with some young cousins, we took the nature trail and while they enjoyed running ahead, we had them stop at each of the numbers to do some quick observation before running on helter-skelter down the track.

On Wednesday I came with quite a different group, members of the Forest and Bird Wellington Regional Tramping group. While the group is normally keen to move at a good pace they don't usually run helter-skelter! This time though we were all prepared to go very slowly, stopping and starting as volunteer guides from the Otari-Wilton's Bush Trust led us through the plant collections, showing us things to look for to help us with plant identification.

New App to Help Identify Native Flora

In the park, on a school trip or out tramping, here's a new tool to identify common native trees. 

With Flora Finder you take a photo of a leaf you're interested in, answer a few simple questions about the leaf to narrow down the selection and then see what matches come up. Flora Finder uses shape recognition technology to match your leaf with one (or more) of the common native trees in the database. There are 87 species in the database with more to come in the future.

It's encouraging to see a New Zealand App about our native flora that takes an interactive approach and makes full use of the iPhone or iPad capabilities of photography, mapping and feedback to the creators. Users can save their identified trees on a map for future reference. You can also use the App to email photos of leaves that weren't able to be identified to Otago University, and apparently this feature is proving popular.

Supermarket Tree on Tiritiri Matangi

On my trip to Tiritiri Matangi I was most impressed by the knowledgeable volunteer guides who took small groups around the pathways in search of birds. Our guide carried some of the stunning photographs he'd taken, to show us characteristics of birds and plants. He also knew all the good places to stop and look.
One place we stopped was by what he called the 'supermarket tree',it was easy to see how it got its name. This big Puriri tree was full of tui, bellbirds, stitch birds, white heads and kereru. On the ground below were robins scratching around. The big attraction were the Puriri flowers - the nectar must be very tasty and full of energy.

Posted with Blogsy

Wellington's flowering kohekohe trees

Kohekohe flowers

 The kohekohe is an unusual flowering tree. Maybe you can spot something unusual about the flowers.