Native plants
Buttercup at Boundary Stream
Boundary Stream Scenic Reserve is a representative fragment of the podocarp-dominant forest that once covered Hawke's Bay. By the time Europeans arrived in New Zealand, about 42 percent of Hawke's Bay forests had been destroyed by fire. Today only 18 percent of the region is still in native forest with only one percent classified as lowland indigenous forest.
Boundary Stream Scenic Reserve has at least 12 distinct vegetation types and over 220 species of native plants. Although much of the bush has been modified by man over the past 200 years, some intact areas of podocarp remain. Altitude, rainfall, climatic zones and physical features affect the distribution of vegetation, which ranges from lowland podocarp to montane forest.
For instance:
- mountain holly forest (Olearia ilicifolia) dominates the crest of the range
- rewarewa, kamahi, kanuka and beech dominate on drier ridges and terraces
maire, tawa, tree fern and podocarp forest (kahikatea, totara and matai) dominate the wetter regions
- an abundance of kowhai adorn numerous cliff faces in spring.
The mighty matai
The matai tree that stands down the track from the carpark on Pohokura Road is a giant of the forest. Believed to be over 800 years old, it is still standing because it was too large to mill. Manson and Clarke's sawmill was unable to handle the tree, and a proposal to mill it at Te Pohue was decided against. The milled timber was intended for use at the Tutira Hall.
Threatened plants
Two species of threatened plant species are found within Boundary Stream Mainland Island - kaka beak and yellow-flowered mistletoe.
Kaka beak or Kowhai ngutukaka - Clianthus puniceus s.l.
About 100 have been planted in the reserve, propagated from the original wild parent plant. These are the southern-most wild specimens in New Zealand. The Boundary Stream (Shine Falls) kaka beak has a distinctive pink flower opposed to the usual scarlet red seen in other wild plants.
Yellow-flowered mistletoe - Alepis flavida
Three yellow-flowered mistletoe plants were known in 1996. Through further searches and possibly recovery, the number of known plants has increased to 50. They only grow on black beech, Nothofagus solandri. To protect these, possums are controlled to eliminate the threat of browsing on existing specimens and allow for the recovery and establishment of new plants. Goats are controlled to allow regeneration of the black beech, the mistletoe's host tree.
Although not strictly a threatened plant, Boundary Stream Mainland Island's solitary adult specimen of neinei - Dracophyllum latifolium is thought to be at the southern limit for this species. It is surrounded by a 2m tall fence to protect it from deer, goat and pig browsing, an extra security measure to complement ground-based hunting.
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