Kowhai seed collection – Port Waikato

 

One of the challenges of collecting seed for a restoration area is to get a seed source that is not cross contaminated with other closely related species or hybrids. This is particularly difficult the closer you get to an urban area with many of the plants in domestic gardens purchased from commercial nurseries. This problem effects some plants more than others. Kowhai is one that is particularly vulnerable. The kowhai seed collected this year, was from a pocket of bush on a remote farm north of Port Waikato. Not only was it a very good tree specimen profusely flowering, but also had good nectar producing flowers evident by the number of tui feeding.