Caged flowers
Posted 14 July 2008 // Helen Rickerby
Short-tailed bat munching a dactylanthus flower
No, this post isn’t about a V. C. Andrews novel, it’s about Department of Conservation (DOC) staff in Taranaki putting plants in cages. But this isn’t some kind of strange botanical punishment – it’s to protect endangered dactylanthus plants from being munched by possums.
Dactylanthus taylorii, also known as wood rose, is rare and special among New Zealand’s flora because it’s our only completely parasitic flowering native plant. It grows on the roots of its host tree and has no leaves of its own.
It’s under threat because possums enjoy scoffing the flowers before they have time to go to seed. The cages keep the possums away, but let through rats and mice, which pollinate the flowers. Prior to the introduction of rats and mice, dactylanthus was pollinated by native short-tailed bats, which are attracted by pheromones, as can be seen in this video of a snacking bat from Te Ara’s ‘Evolution of plants and animals‘ entry.
The cages are part of DOC’s dactylanthus recovery plan, and they also want to locate populations of the plants – so should you happen to see any on your strolls through the bush, you can help by letting DOC know where they are.
