The mighty Totara – Wednesday 20 March 2019
A clued- up group of students from Otatara School arrived today, excited to learn more about the mighty tōtara tree. After a quick look at the habitat tunnel and opening of doors to see what kind of plants and animals live where we turned our focus back to tōtara. We knew that as a class they have been looking after two tōtara seedlings and learning about what they need to survive, so we started by asking them about how caring for the seedlings has been going and what they have learnt about what plants need.
We talked about what identifies tōtara, with the students knowledge of the spikey pointed leaves most obvious. A leaf matching game with similar shaped leaved did still confuse a couple, showing how important it is to look closely, just as a botanist would. Their description of the tōtara bark was excellent. We then showed them the fruit of tōtara and wondered what the green things were on the end of the berry….a leaf? (but it wasn’t the same as a leaf)… A seed? (yes a seed!). Tōtara have their seeds on the outside of their fruit (just like a strawberry), are eaten by birds and pooped out to grow somewhere else in the forest.
We discussed how special the tōtara is for Otatara, with Otatara and Sandy Point providing the best example in New Zealand of coastal tōtara sand dune forest, and how native forest used to grow everywhere in Otatara. This then led to pondering what had happened to all the tōtara and the uses that the strong straight timber was put to.
Chris showed a big book all about tōtara and how tōtara tells the story of New Zealand history because of its uses by both Maori and European people. Could we tell the story of Otatara history in the same way? Tōtara was used for all types of building, fenceposts, bridges etc – are there still any tōtara structures left in Otatara? We agreed we might have to ask Mr Esler! Students were asked if they knew of any Maori uses for tōtara and they gave some great answers – boats – waka, carving (telling stories), making bags (for muttonbirds).
A walk around the pond, noticing tōtara as we wandered, talking about how forests grow and how the Southland Community Nursery works were followed by learning how to pot up little tōtara seedlings. A great hands on way to end their visit to the nursery. Some great learning about tōtara by the tōtara class today.
Bronwyn and Chris
Posted: 21 March 2019