Hutt and Wainuiomata
Wainuiomata valley and hills behind Eastbourne, Lower Hutt (not Western Hills - see Nikau Belt and Inland Wellington - Porirua), Upper Hutt, and Kaitoke.
Environmental Factors: The climate is wet, cloudy and frosty in winter, but free of extremes. Vegetation patterns determined more by soil fertility.
Past Landscape: A pattern of beech- and kamahi-dominated forest on infertile hillslopes, podocarp forest and swamp in cold, wet basins. Lofty podocarp/broadleaf forest would have grown on fertile alluvial river flats.
Plants we recommend:
"Heritage" trees
Kahikatea, matai, miro, rimu, totara, & black, hard, red & silver beech, northern rata.
Trees
Big (b) >15m Medium (m) = 10-15m Small (s) = <10m
Five-finger (m), hinau (b), kamahi (b), lancewood (m), lemonwood (m), lowland ribbonwood (b), mahoe (s), marbleleaf (s), pokaka (b), small-leaved milk tree (s), titoki (b), tree fuchsia (m), tree hebe (s)
Shrubs
Mountain alseuosmia, Coprosma propinqua, Coprosma rhamnoides, Coprosma rigida, Coprosma areolata, poataniwha, kawakawa (shade).
Climbers (c) and scramblers (s)
NZ passionfruit (c), white clematis (c)
Grasses (g), sedges (s) and rushes (r)
Silver tussock (g), toetoe: both spring- and summer-flowering species (g)
Ferns, including tree ferns (tf)
Any ferns on the Main List should thrive in this zone, in moist sites.
Look for these symbols in the main list for more plants to plant in this zone: Fs, Ps, Fh, Fm, Af, Fh.
Did you know?
Our tree fuchsia is one of the largest fuchsias in the world. Some of the flowers have bright, blue pollen, a rarity in the plant world. Kereru love to feed on its leaves, flowers and fruit … but too often possums get there first.