The Daisy Family in Aoteoroa

There are many plants from the Compositae family in New Zealand.

Firstly is the wonderful Celmesia which are quite varied in the Alpine regions with the classic daisy flower, they are mostly confined to being a groundcover or small shrub. In late spring and early summer they put on magnificent show in the alpine regions.

Secondly is the Olearia which is a very common plant throughout the various environs New Zealand has to offer. 

They are one of select few genera of the daisy family to become trees, a majority of the rest are shrubs or perennial and annual herbs.  Some are in the Alpine Zone where they are in general, smaller in size and some are in the lowland regions where they are normally larger. They have representatives at sea level such as the Heketara (Olearea rani) and in the sub-alpine regions are the rough leaved tree daisy (Olearia lacunosa). The New Zealand Holly (Olearia illicifolia) is also a striking plant with bunches of daisy flowers rather than red berries of the true holly but we like to be a little different down here in the South Pacific.

The third group is the Brachyglottis. 

This includes the shrub Rangiora which has often been referred to as the Bushmans Friend because of the large leaf resembling a portion of purex toilet paper. A plant called the Muttonbird Scrub or Brachyglottis rotundifoli  was nick named the “Stewart Island Postcard” because it was a leathery leaf that could be written on so people would affix a stamp and send messages around the world.

All these plants from the Compositae family are well represented in New Zealand’s diverse environs and they are travellers on the wind and we have plenty of that so widespread they are.

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Many questions exist as to how many plant species made it to New Zealand and their mode of transport. Some would have come via the wind as the daisies have but there are many other ways plants got here, namely on a floating log, on a migrating bird and ancient land bridges. When the distance between NZ and Gondwanaland was less then plants could cross the gap easily but now it is normally too far for plants (seeds) to travel. With many relatives of New Zealand species in the other Gondwanaland landmasses, it stands to reason that they we all once the same species and as they have travelled on their island arks and adapted to their new environments. Some good examples are the Southern Beech (Nothofagus), Metrosideros (Rata and Pohutukawa) and Podocarps (Rimu, Kahikatea etc).