I am very excited to announce my new book ‘Secrets of the Sea’ is here! I’ve taken a brief foray away from the forest to explore the magic and mystery beneath the waves. It’s been an incredible journey and I can’t wait to share it with you all. You can pick up a copy online or in store at the Auckland Museum gift shop now.For … Continue reading Secrets of the Sea Book
I am very excited to announce the publication of: The Meaning of Trees – the history and use of New Zealand’s native plants. When I first began this blog in 2014, I was completing my undergraduate studies in biology at the University of Auckland. In the back of my mind, I had always dreamed of turning the blog into a book, but didn’t know how … Continue reading The Meaning of Trees Book
Over the years, many people have speculated that the pipeweed the hobbits are smoking is actually Cannabis sativa. Proponents of this theory point to the tendency for hobbits to become drowsy or giddy after smoking it, and suggest that this may help explain their voracious appetite. Continue reading The Botany of Middle Earth – Part II
Far below the New Zealand mainland, through the lashing winds and crashing waves, lie the Subantarctic islands – a series of remote, rocky outcrops scattered across the South Pacific. At first glance, its hard to think of a more hostile place for plants to grow. The islands are battered by towering waves and torn apart by gale force winds, with only a tiny amount of sunshine … Continue reading Megaherbs of the Subantarctic Islands
The Forgotten Kingdom We often think about Plants and Fungi together, but in truth Fungi are more closely related to humans than plants. They belong to their own separate kingdom containing millions of species, vastly outnumbering plants. Not only that, but the part of the fungi we are most familiar with – the toadstool or mushroom – is just the tip of the iceberg. Most … Continue reading Māori & Mushrooms: Fungi in Aotearoa
For many people around the world, Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy put New Zealand on the map. The sweeping panorama shots of snow-topped mountains, remote tussock grasslands and wild untamed forests worked like an extended tourism video, and visitors flocked to the country in record numbers. However with such a huge emphasis on the spectacular scenery there is an important character in the … Continue reading Lord of the Trees: The Botany of Middle Earth
For the most part, promoting conservation in New Zealand is pretty easy. We have some of the most incredible, charismatic, cute and fluffy creatures in the world – they pretty much sell themselves. As a matter of fact, one of our birds – Sirocco the Kākāpō – went viral after shagging a cameraman’s head and has since been recognised by the New Zealand government as … Continue reading Forgotten Flora
The Metrosideros genus contains around 50 species and is one of the most widely distributed plants in the Pacific. The subgenus Mearnsia contains the shrubs, creepers and climbers and includes New Zealand species such as White and Scarlet Rata. It is generally only found on fragments of the old Gondwanan landmass: New Zealand, New Caledonia and New Guinea. The subgenus Metrosideros contains trees such as … Continue reading Metrosideros – Pioneers of the Pacific
The Death of the Dinosaurs When New Zealand first began to rift away from Gondwana, dinosaurs still walked amongst the shade of giant conifers, the ocean was ruled by vicious marine reptiles and the skies were dominated by flying pterosaurs. But around 65 million years ago a meteorite roughly 10 kilometres wide crashed into the Yucatan peninsula. The shockwave, the ensuing tsunamis and firestorms, … Continue reading A Land Without Teeth
Gondwanan Heritage Gondwana was a large southern hemisphere super-continent that could essentially be thought of as the birthplace of New Zealand. It was composed of the modern day landmasses of Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, India, Madagascar and New Zealand and existed as an entity for hundreds of millions of years before being rifted apart by volcanic activity under the earth’s crust. Many species of extinct and extant plants … Continue reading The Story of New Zealand
The Meaning of Trees 