The Juncus of Auckland, Vol. II Table of Contents Introduction 1 Juncus fockei 2 Juncus gerardii 3 Juncus holoschoenus var. holoschoenus 4 Juncus homalocaulis 5 Juncus kraussii subsp. australiensis 6 Juncus microcephalus 7 Juncus pallidus 8 Juncus pauciflorus 9 Juncus planifolius 10 Juncus prismatocarpus 11 Juncus procerus 12 Juncus sarophorus 13 Juncus subsecundus 14 Juncus tenuis subsp. dichotomus 15 Juncus tenuis subsp. tenuis 16 Juncus usitatus 17 Glossary 18 Made on the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network website – www.nzpcn.org.nz Copyright All images used in this book remain copyright of the named photographer. Any reproduction, retransmission, republication, or other use of all or part of this book is expressly prohibited, unless prior written permission has been granted by the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network ([email protected]). All other rights reserved. © 2017 New Zealand Plant Conservation Network Introduction About the Network This book was compiled from information stored on the The Network has more than 800 members worldwide and is website of the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network New Zealand's largest non­governmental organisation solely (www.nzpcn.org.nz). devoted to the protection and restoration of New Zealand's indigenous plant life. This website was established in 2003 as a repository for information about New Zealand's threatened vascular The vision of the New Zealand Plant Conservation Network is plants. Since then it has grown into a national database of that 'no indigenous species of plant will become extinct nor be information about all plants in the New Zealand botanic placed at risk of extinction as a result of human action or region including both native and naturalised vascular indifference, and that the rich, diverse and unique plant life of plants, threatened mosses, liverworts and fungi. New Zealand will be recognised, cherished and restored'. Funding to develop the website was provided by the New Since it was founded in 2003 the Network has undertaken a Zealand Government's Terrestrial and Freshwater range of conservation initiatives in order to achieve its vision. Biodiversity Information System Programme (TFBIS). That work has included: The species information used on the website has come from a variety of sources. The indigenous vascular plant l Training people in plant conservation text was written largely by Dr Peter de Lange (former l Publishing plant books, reports and posters Network Vice President). Peter based the descriptions on a l Raising money for the David Given Threatened Plant wide range of sources including the Flora of NZ Series Research Trust to pay for plant conservation research (Allan 1961, Moore and Edgar 1970 and Webb et al 1987) scholarships as well as numerous other taxonomic treatments. For a l Advocacy to raise awareness of the importance of plant full bibliography of information sources see the References life in general and especially New Zealand's status as a at the end of this book. Global Centre of Plant Diversity l Lobbying central and regional government and business Where no published treatment was available Peter used to protect indigenous plant life herbarium specimens and his own knowledge of the flora l Educating people about plant life through the Network to prepare species pages. Various other contributors have website provided text and additional information to many species l Connecting people through the monthly newsletter, the pages including botanists such as Mike Thorsen, John Network conference and the annual general meeting Barkla, Cathy Jones, Simon Walls, Nick Singers and many others. The threatened fungi text was written by Eric Mackenzie and Peter Buchanan (Landcare Research). What is a threatened plant? More than 200 photographers have kindly provided The NZ Threatened Plant Committee was formed in 1991 and images to illustrate the website and for use in this book ever since then it has met at regular intervals to review the especially John Smith­Dodsworth, Jeremy Rolfe, Peter de status of indigenous vascular plants. It is made up of a small Lange, Wayne Bennett and Gillian Crowcroft. group of botanists that between them have an extensive knowledge of the native plants of New Zealand. This group is chaired by Dr Peter de Lange of the New Zealand Department The New Zealand Botanic Region of Conservation. The information on the Network website, from which this This committee applies a set of criteria to each native plant to book was compiled, is for species that are indigenous to or determine its conservation status. The resulting list of species naturalised within the New Zealand Botanic Region as classified as threatened is published in the NZ Journal of defined by Allan (1961). The New Zealand botanic region Botany (see for example de Lange et al. 2009). The main encompases the Kermadec, Manawatawhi/Three Kings, threat categories used are: Extinct, Critical, Endangered, North, South, Stewart Island/Rakiura, Chatham, Vulnerable, Declining. Other categories used are: Recovering, Antipodes, Bounties, Snares, Auckland Campbell Relict, Naturally Uncommon, Coloniser, Vagrant and Data island/Motu Ihupuku and Macquarie. Deficient. For vascular plants the threat status used in this book is taken from the 2009 conservation assessment (see de Lange et al 2009). More recently other committees have been established to review the status of non­vascular plants but their lists are yet to be published. © 2017 New Zealand Plant Conservation Network Juncus fockei Current Threat Status (2009): Exotic For more information, visit: http://nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.asp?ID=3336 Caption: Aorangi Forest Park. Hanging down steep slope. Sep 2007. Photographer: Jeremy Rolfe Caption: Base of plant. Aorangi Forest Park. Sep 2007. Photographer: Jeremy Rolfe © 2013 New Zealand Plant Conservation Network Juncus gerardii Current Threat Status (2009): Exotic Habitat: Aquatic: Emergent. Features: Sward forming rush with black rhizomes and erect tufts of dull green leaves, to 20 cm long and 1 mm wide. Leaves are stiff and wiry with small, rounded auricles. Stems 40 ­ 80 cm tall; flowers spread out on open fan­shaped branchlets. Flowers 3­4 mm long with dark tepals; Caption: Juncus gerardii hooded at tip. Light brown broad capsules are about equal to tepals. Photographer: John Barkla References and further reading: Johnson, A. T. and Smith, H. A (1986). Plant Names Simplified: Their pronunciation, derivation and meaning. Landsman Bookshop Ltd: Buckenhill, UK. For more information, visit: http://nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.asp?ID=3344 Caption: Juncus gerardii Photographer: John Barkla © 2014 New Zealand Plant Conservation Network Juncus holoschoenus var. holoschoenus Common Name(s): None Known Current Threat Status (2012): Threatened ­ Nationally Critical Distribution: Indigenous. Common in Australia ­ although J. holoschoenus is a species complex, and when the segregate entities are fully resolved it may turn out to be much less common there than currently believed. In New Zealand, though reported widely from North, South and Caption: Mitotic chromosomes Chatham Islands, critical comparison of herbarium specimens shows (2n = 106). that most recent (and historic) records are based on J. holoschoenus Photographer: Brian Murray var. multiflorus Carse whose taxonomic status whilst unclear (see comments made of it in Flora of New Zealand, Vol. 2), is clearly not the same as the older New Zealand collections of J. holoschoenus and is probably the result of an Australian introduction of one of their J. holoschoenus complex. Habitat: Coastal and lowland to subalpine eutrophic to oligotrophic wetlands. Always found growing in shallow water. Features*: Tufted, shortly rhizomatous perennial, bright­green rush up to 750mm tall. Stems stout, erect, circular in cross­section, internal transverse septa absent or just evident. Leaf­sheath pale green to Caption: Close up of Juncus almost white, 30–50mm long, incompletely septate, auricles 2, obtuse. holoschoenus var. holoschoenus Leaves 5–10, 150–300mm long, linear, erect to curving, circular to Photographer: Nick Singers, semi­compressed, hollow, unitubular, transversely septate across 2005, Rangataiki Frost Flats whole width; leaf tip acuminate. Inflorescence rather stout, terminal, cymose; 2–5 branched, bearing 2–8, globular, 20–30mm diameter, 10–30­flowered fascicles at branch apices; subtending bract leafy, < inflorescence, septate across whole width. Flowers 3.5–5.0mm diameter; tepals equal, acuminate, green to red­green. Stamens 6. Capsules 4.5 × 1.5mm, more or less equal in length to tepals, ovate­lanceolate, triquetrous, tapered to a distinct, mucronate apex. Flowering: Fruiting: October to December December to May Threats: Not clear. This rush has declined rapidly over the last 120 years and is now only known with certainty from relatively weed free sub­alpine mires and frost flats. It seems plausible that it declined through competition from other similar introduced rushes or a host of other exotic wetland weeds that now dominate many wetland systems that this species once occupied. Examination of herbarium specimens suggests this rush might never have been common in New Zealand. Perhaps it was a recent trans­Tasman arrival, which was in the process of establishing itself, when other exotic weeds were introduced into the wetland systems it evidently favours. One thing is clear, J. holoschoenus var. holoschoenus is now seriously at risk of extinction in this country. *Attribution: Fact Sheet prepared for the NZPCN