New Zealand Plants Research

New Zealand Plants

By Minchul Park

2009

Contents

The five plant groups Concept map of the characteristics of the five plant

groups Killer plants -examples -how each plant kills -features that make them efficient killing machines The use of native New Zealand plants -medical use -traditional Maori use -modern use Bibliography

The five plant groups

Algae: these are simple plants found in water. Exam-ples are: bull kelp, Neptune’s necklace and seaweeds.

Mosses and liverworts: these are the smallest land plants which normally grow in damp places. Exam-ples: sphagnum moss and liverworts. Liverworts look like small green liver.

Gymnosperms: these are cone-bearing plants. Exam-ples: kauri, miro, radiata pine.

Angiosperms: these are basically flowering plants. It can be divided into two groups depending on how many food storage cotyledons there are in the seed. Examples: cabbage tree, flax, kowhai, pohutukawa.

Ferns. Example: tree ferns, bracken.

Concept map of the characteristics of the five plant groups

The five plant groups

AlgaeSimple plants that are found

in water.

Brown algae attach themselves to rock by holdfast and fill their tissue with gas to make it float.

Green algae is found in fresh water and is commonly called

slime.Algae have not got stems,

roots, leaves or flowers

Mosses and liverworts

Smallest land plants

Mosses and liverworts only live in dark and

damp places. They group together to help hold

water.They have simple leaves

and roots.

GymnospermsCone-bearing

plants.

Gymnosperms are normally large and can grow in a wide range of areas. Conifers like radiata pine are used in the wood and paper industries.Most gymnosperms have

needle-sharp leaves.

AngiospermsFlowering plants. While

some can be small some form bigger trees. There are two types depending on how many food storage cotyle-

dons there are in the seeds.

DicotyledonsThese have two food storage cotyledons. They form bright coloured flowers to attract in-

sects for pollination, e.g. kowhai and pohutukawa.

The leaves of dicotyledons have a main leaf vein with side

branches.

MonocotyledonsThese have one food storage

cotyledon. They normally have white or green flowers and use

the wind for pollination, e.g. cab-bage tree and flax.

The leaves of monocotyledons have veins that run from the bot-

tom of the leaves to the top.

FernsFerns have special leaves

called fronds which is used to refer to large divided leaf. Most of them grow in darker,

damper areas, but some grow in open sunny spots.

Killer plants All over the world there are plants that kills: carnivorous plants

and plants that kill for protection. An example of a carnivorous plant (plants that kill for food)

can be Drosera (known as the Sundews).The Sundews lives all around the world and it lives on New Zealand too. But we only have 7 species on New Zealand.

An example of a plant that kills for protection is the Tree nettle (ongaonga), which is also known as its botanical name Urtica ferox.

On a Boxing Day 1961, two men went hunting in the Ruahine Range and stumbled through a patch of tree nettle and re-ceived a number of stings on their limbs.

Within an hour, one of them had difficulty breathing and lost sight. After 5 hours in a hospital he died.

The other man had the same symptoms but survived.

How each plant kills- The Sundews

All seven species have sticky gland tipped hairs (tentacles) to capture and devour their insect prey. These hairs usually oc-cur around the periphery of the leaf lam-ina and on its upper surface. They are sensitive to both touch and taste.

An insect struggling to break free only stimulates the tentacles to inflex carrying the helpless victim to the centre of the plant where most of the enzyme comes out and breaks the body.

The process takes 4 to 5 days and after that, the tentacles reposition themselves.

How each plant kills- The Tree net-tle (Urtica ferox or ongaonga)

Ongaonga is covered in needle-like stinging hairs that give off a poison when brushed against. The sting is quite painful and the area around it may go numb for a while. People have been sick or have died after stepping into a bush of ongaonga.

Features of each plant that makes them efficient killing machines The Sundews have sticky gland tipped hairs

(tentacles). It uses these tentacles to capture their prey. The ongaonga have needle-like stinging

hairs that give off a poison when brushed against.

Sticky gland tipped hairs

Stinging nee-dle-like hairs

The Pohutukawa tree-medicinal use The inner bark, when infused, can be used to treat

dysentry and diarrhoea (contains ellagic acid). The nectar of the flowers is used to help alleviate

sore throats. The Maori used the tannin in the inner bark to

stop bleeding. They bound it against the wound or made a poultice of the boiled and powdered bark and bandaged it over the wound. For toothache a piece of inner bark was held in the mouth, or they steeped it in water and used it as a mouthwash and gargle.

The Pohutukawa tree-traditional Maori use and the reason why the plant suited for this use The pohutukawa was highly respected and usually the tohunga

(chief priest) would be the one to extract and make the rongoa giving it a tapu (sacred) status.

The Maori used pohutukawa for similar tools and implements that they used kanuka for, as did the European settler. In the days of wooden boats pohutukawa branches were sometimes used as the keel because of their natural "boat-shaped" curves, strength and rot resistance. Planks from the wood were used to make the rest of the hull.

Branches extending over the water were often used as diving boards.

The reason why the Pohutukawas were suited in many Maori uses is that Pohutukawas also feature in Maori mythology and history. Several pohutukawa are thought to have been anchoring points for the first Maori canoes, and there is a pohutukawa at the tip of the North Island, at Cape Reinga, which is the jumping off point for the spirits of the deceased on their way to the underworld.

The Pohutukawa tree-modern use and the reason why the plant suited for this use One of the main use of the Pohutukawa

is to decorate people’s homes at Christmas instead of a normal Christ-mas tree.

Pohutukawa honey is very popular, commonly found on supermarket shelves and a good medicine for sore throats (the Maori used to suck it straight from the flower through a reed).

Bibliography

Websites http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/poisonous-plants-a http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnivorous_plant http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urtica_ferox http://www.nzcps.co.nz/NZCPSNativeCPs.html http://www.aoteamoana.co.nz/native/

native.html#pohutukawa

Books Title: The 21st century Woongjin encyclopedia. Author: WOONGJIN.COM.CO.,LTD. Publisher: Jun-He Kim Year Published: 1999 Place Published: Seoul, South Korea.