Duneland
Riversdale, Seaview-Petone, Miramar Flats, Kilbirnie, Rongotai, Lyall Bay, Paekakariki, Raumati, Paraparaumu, Waikanae Beach, Te Horo Beach, and Otaki Beach.
Environmental Factors: Sandy soils are free-draining, infertile and drought-prone in areas with dry summers. Onshore winds are salt-laden but on the Kapiti Coast it is the easterly storms which can physically damage trees.
Past Landscape: A highly diverse area of wetland/ dry dune habitat where grass and shrubland dominated the younger dunes and forest covered the old dunes.
Plants we recommend:
Trees
Big (b) = >15m Medium (m) = 10-15m Small (s) = <10m
Akeake (s), (green, not purple form), akiraho (s), cabbage tree (m), kanuka (b), kohekohe (b) (needs shelter), lancewood (m), mahoe (m), manuka (m), mapou (s), whau (s) (frost tender).
Shrubs
Coastal tree daisy, sand coprosma, Coprosma rhamnoides, koromiko, salt-marsh ribbonwood, Pimelea prostrata, poroporo ( Solanum aviculare & Solanum laciniatum)
Climbers (c) & scramblers (s)
NZ spinach (s), small white clematis (c), leafless clematis (s) leafless lawyer (s), pohuehue (s), shore convolvulus (s), white rata (c), NZ ice plant (s).
Ferns
NZ maidenhair, shaking brake, shield fern, shining spleenwort, sweet brake
Other plants
Coastal flax, creeping pratia, NZ iris ( Libertia peregrinans), NZ ice plant.
Look for these symbols in the main list for more plants to plant in this zone: Os, Fh, Fm, Co, Ab, Af.
Think like a skink
Did you know that skinks are attracted to small-leaved, ground hugging plants, especially those with white or pale fruit such as New Zealand daphne ( Pimelia prostrata)? Coprosma species can provide essential cover for skinks on bare rocky sites. Nearby trees can provide perches for predatory birds such as kotare (kingfisher).
Grasses (g), Sedges (s) & Rushes (r)
Pingao (s), jointed wire rush (r), Carex secta (s) Carex virgata (s) sand sedge (s), silvery sand grass (g), spring- and summer- flowering toetoe.