Nursery Fridays have been busy and varied. Autumn brings lots of seed collecting, seed cleaning and preparation for sowing. Potting is still happening but the nursery is pretty full as the very dry weather has meant people have not picked up their plants for autumn planting yet – hopefully soon now that the drought has broken! We have also been preparing for a new track by moving a paddock fence, had a foraging session, a trap setting demo, processed a massive crop of BB peaches and have pressed some, but by no means all, of our apples. If you would like some apples for pressing, eating or cooking send me an email and come and pick some. Earlier, through much of January, February and March watering has been a constant need, Geoff has been a star on the weeding front and morning teas have been held largely outside.
We are closing over Easter – Friday 15 and 22 April resuming on Friday 29 April 22.
Posted: 13 April 2022
On 6 April 2022 Jesse Bythell and myself held a Plant ID workshop for first year SIT Environmental Management students. Seven students accompanied by tutor Mark Oster braved a cold weather day to learn about the NZ native flora.
The course is adapted from the two day NZPCN course https://www.nzpcn.org.nz/conservation/training/module-1-plant-life/ but is very specific to Southland using Southland plant examples and plant id card resources created by the Community Nursery - https://www.southlandcommunitynursery.org.nz/site/assets/files/1096/southland_plant_id_-_scn_2015_plant_course.pdf
The course content went through the following topics “Why New Zealand Plants”, “Plant Names”, “where plants grow and why”, “Plant communities”, “Life cycle and growth form”, “flowers”, “spores seeds and fruit”, “leaves”, “stems and bark”, “roots” and “plant identification”. The workshop was a combination of slides, exercises and bush walks but due to the weather probably a bit more time inside than we would have liked.
Thanks to Jesse for her abounding enthusiasm and energy and to students for their interest and enthusiasm to learn about our unique flora.
Chris
Posted: 13 April 2022
Spending time out in the bush reserve with the Ponga (Year 2) class we focused mainly on noticing and learning all about ferns. The 1st March after looking closely at some silver fern (Ponga) and wheki ponga fronds we set off to the reserve with Mrs Rodway - and we found so many different ferns. We had to use our eyes to spot the differences, becoming botanists as we learnt that there are over 200 types of ferns in NZ. We wondered how many were in the reserve? As well as the leaves of ferns being called fronds, we also learnt that the seeds are called spores. Great words to use. The 15th March Mrs Mac and the class were on a mission - for each student to find 3 leaves (not picked, but instead from the forest floor) - all different kinds and all different colours. As we wandered the class also shared their knowledge of ferns with Mrs Mac - and we discovered and made neuron connections as we shared. When we didn’t know we looked at a great book “Which Native Fern?” by Andrew Crowe, being introduced and using a KEY to work out which of the 200 species of fern it could be. Great learning for us all. Back in class the students grouped their leaves - by shape and colour and other ways - thinking about what might fit and not fit as the case may be. This made us all look very closely at the leaves. On the 29th March it was another opportunity to have the children/ tamariki share with Miss Nieborg their learning about ferns from the past visits to the bush. Their growing and developing knowledge was shared and grew even bigger today with great noticing of more types of ferns. We used our book again today to identify and name more ferns, and learnt how we can post pictures to iNaturalist to get other experts to help us. We saw a hanging spleenwort, a fern climbing a tree, and many other of the ferns found in the Otatara reserve. There was lots of scientific thinking and noticing as we compared fronds, where spores are found on the plant, and the feel and shapes of the ferns. Some fern fronds (pressed) from the Southland Community Nursery were left with the class for comparing and learning. The 12th of April our focus shifted away from ferns to other aspects of the bush world in the reserve. We met some other Otatara School classroom trees including tī kōuka/cabbage tree, mānuka, horopito, tarata and tōtara starting our noticing and comparing different tree species. We looked and described the bark and leaves and there were some great descriptive words used to distinguish between different species. We then explored the reserve finding something really interesting to sketch and coming up with three descriptive words to go with our drawings. Such great noticing and recording like a scientist!
Bronwyn
Posted: 12 April 2022
Learning and noticing in the bush with this class began on the 1st March and I heard all about how Mrs Seager and Mrs Healey have been looking at the broadleaf plants growing around the school grounds and what they are using to identify this plant - the leaves being the main focus. After the class showed me the broadleaf plants around school and told me how they identify these, we talked about akapuka, kapuka and the scientific names of these 2 different species. Then we visited the reserve, spotting not only broadleaf but other NZ natives, and blackberries. We talked about seeds and the different dispersal methods of plant seeds. The next session on the 15th March we focused on the conditions that kapuka likes to grow in. We walked through the bush spotting a number of smaller plants and the occasional bigger plant. We tried to estimate the height of this bigger kapuka tree. We noted the forest canopy layer and the forest floor - noting that in the areas where it was darker (and more forest canopy) there were lots of ferns on the forest floor. Once we were heading out towards the blackberry area and golf area along the edge of the reserve we found lots and lots of kapuka - and they were huge! Noticing where the kapuka grew largest we built our knowledge of this plant working out that it likes open canopy areas and light to grow. It doesn’t do so well in darker mature forest areas. We also noticed a black soot on the leaves of some of the plants. We also learnt about the sycamore tree - and looked at all the dead trees in one section of the reserve - all sycamores that have been controlled/killed. We also noticed all the seedling sycamores all around! The 29th March we recapped what we know about kapuka and where it lives. Then using the leaf bingo cards the class met and identified a number of other NZ native trees, using their knowledge and expertise in kapuka identification to compare different species. It was great to see the scientific thinking at the forefront. The Pittosporum species - tarata and kōhūhū tested their identification techniques - but once the elusive tarata was spotted the differences between it and its close relation kōhūhū were easy to spot! We spotted lots of berries and seed pods today - mingimingi, tōtara, kōhūhū and tarata, noticing where the seeds were - some in berries, or on the outside of berries, and others in seed pods. Looking more closely at the kapuka berries that are changing colour with the season we talked about kapuka as a food source (in times of food shortages) and how else this tree was used - in medicine for skin and timber uses. Great looking today at all that was around them. We ended the term on 12th April looking at the different seed types (pods, fluffy, hard coated, sticky) and looking closely and testing we worked out how these seeds would be dispersed, extending on their classroom learning about seed dispersal.
It was great to learn alongside this class as they inquired and came up with working theories about their natural world.
Bronwyn
Posted: 12 April 2022
It has been a term of close observing, noticing aspects of the bush reserve, and the seasonal changes occurring in this habitat. The 1st March we set off to the reserve - and the students showed me what an observant bunch they are. We found both a tōtara fruit and cone - from the female and male trees respectively. What great spotting. We also noticed the different birds living in the reserve seeing or hearing tui, kererū, bellbird and pīwakawaka. There was also lots of blackberry eating!
15th March our hikoi through the bush focused on meeting some of the other trees that classrooms are named at Otatara School. As well as finding tōtara (including fruit with the seed on the outside) we found mataī, wheki ponga, mānuka, kapuka, horopito, kahikatea, kōtukutuku, pōkākā and tarata, comparing the leaves and other characteristics of these NZ natives. We spotted kererū dive bombing and ate some more blackberries - noting that the seeds of these berries are on the inside. We also spotted other seeds - kōhūhū, grasses, flax and heaps of sycamore seeds on one tree - just like helicopters.
29th March and Mrs Scarlett had kahikatea and pōkākā seeds that she had found at her place. After identifying the pōkākā there was discussion around tōtara and kahikatea fruit looking similar with the seed on the outside. That is because these 2 species (as well as miro, mataī and rimu) are all from the same podocarp plant family. Then it was looking eyes on to spot different seeds in the reserve. We didn’t make it very far as the noticing was exceptional. We spotted lots of seeds today - either as part of a berry or in a seed pod. Seeds discovered today included kōwhai, flax, tī kōuka/cabbage tree, mānuka, toetoe, mingimingi, tōtara, kōhūhū, Astelia, Hebe, tarata and even the seeds of non-natives and pest plants (like blackberry, sycamore and ragwort!).
12 April it was off to the reserve, continuing to use our observation skills out in nature. Building on last week we kept our eyes open for seeds and the find of the term were some miro berries low enough on the tree for us to see! Amazing. We also learnt that ferns have spores (not seeds). We also did find some fungi but did expect to find some more. We noticed that the season has changed from summer to autumn.
Bronwyn
Posted: 12 April 2022
