'Plant nerd' thrilled to rediscover native fern

DOC officers monitoring Taranaki forests have found two native plants previously thought extinct in the area.

The rediscovery of a King Fern caused Department of Conservation biodiversity officer Jack Mace's heart to skip a beat.

In the wild the fern is in the same category as the kiwi and had been thought extinct in the park until his rediscovery.

"It was awesome. I'm a bit of a plant nerd and I was in the Kaitake ranges looking for some climbing asparagus and turned around and saw this big plant I went, `oh yeah!'. I guess it's a bit like a hunter stumbling across a huge stag. It was so unexpected."

While the plant is widely cultivated in Pukekura Park and in private gardens throughout the country, the find marks the most southerly example of the fern in the wild.

Together with the discovery of green flowered mistletoe, their monitoring results point to a level of success for DOC's pest control programmes, Mr Mace said.

"Possums are hitting certain canopy trees in the National Park but preliminary results show that generally the forest in the park is in good condition. Under the canopy, a lot of edible plants like kamahi and hen and chicken fern are still there and we want them to stay."

This year's monitoring covered the National Park from the sub alpine to the lowland forest as well as forests in the Whitecliffs area, Waitaanga, Tangarakau and Pouiatoa west of Okoki.

- © Fairfax NZ News