#phormium — Public Fediverse posts

Somebody has been hanging Christmas decorations on the plants along the walkway through Centennial Park in Ōtautahi-Christchurch, NZ. I photographed this one yesterday hung on a harakeke flower.

Thinking more, perhaps it's some clever pollination experiment! I wonder if these decorations make the red harakeke flowers more visible to the local birds (korimako and starlings and silvereyes) that feed from these flowers.

https://flic.kr/p/2rN9Pjj

#Christchurch #Christmas #ChristmasDecoration #Ōtautahi #plant #botany #Phormium #NZflax

Here's another addition to my growing list of "nature doing weird things in 2025".

This is a harakeke, Phormium tenax, one of the NZ flax species. I found it in flower on Friday. It's not supposed to be doing that. I have never seen a harakeke flowering in July before.

The only other observation of a harakeke in flower from Canterbury any time during May–August on #iNaturalist was an observation I made on 18 August 2018.

It's very confused.

https://inaturalist.nz/observations/295637509

#iNaturalistNZ #phenology #BloomScrolling #NZ #Phormium #Flowering #botany #nature

Is there a known thing for #Phormium flaxes to just decide to be half their normal height?

My wharariki has been doing that for the past 2 months and some other people in town have also complained that their special harakeke has done the same.

#gardening

That’s encouraging!

I haven’t had much success with #Phormium tenax but the good news is this one is too large for a slug, rabbit, or duck to eat.

@timClicks

This is a shaking brake (#Pteris tremula) that I pulled out because it’s wandering across my lawn. On the bottom are wharariki (#Phormium colensoi) seeds that have sprouted after the cold weather a few weeks back. They need the cold and damp to get started.

@mk30
Oh wow, interesting list. Not being a native and being quick to spread and form a monoculture I thought it would be easily added to the list. Popular with gardeners because it is quick to spread and form a monoculture, sadly.

I see that the flax that I germinate and grow is on the invasive list in Hawai’i. #Phormium tenax, harakeke, very popular here.

https://dlnr.hawaii.gov/hisc/info/invasive-species-profiles/new-zealand-flax/

In 2022, I added flax notcher and scraper moth damage to the species I map along my standard runs through Ōtautahi-Christchurch. The caterpillars make distinctive damage on flax leaves (as I first learned in high school). In hindsight, this was crazy to try to map while running, but the results are fascinating! Flax cultivars are now widely planted in gardens, but almost all of the herbivory is on the old flax up in the hills.
#EcologicalMonitoring #WildCounts #Phormium #AotearoaNZ #Herbivory