''Dactylanthus taylorii'', commonly known in English as wood rose
and in
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
as te pua o te rēinga, is a fully
parasitic
Parasitism is a close relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or inside another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. The entomologist E. O. Wilson has c ...
flowering plant, the only one
endemic
Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...
to
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
. The
host
A host is a person responsible for guests at an event or for providing hospitality during it.
Host may also refer to:
Places
* Host, Pennsylvania, a village in Berks County
People
*Jim Host (born 1937), American businessman
* Michel Host ...
tree responds to the presence of ''Dactylanthus'' by forming a
burl
A burl (American English) or burr (British English) is a tree growth in which the grain has grown in a deformed manner. It is commonly found in the form of a rounded outgrowth on a tree trunk or branch that is filled with small knots from do ...
-like structure that resembles a fluted wooden
rose
A rose is either a woody perennial flowering plant of the genus ''Rosa'' (), in the family Rosaceae (), or the flower it bears. There are over three hundred species and tens of thousands of cultivars. They form a group of plants that can be ...
(hence the common name). When the flowers emerge on the forest floor, they are pollinated by a ground-foraging species of native bat.
Description
''Dactylanthus taylorii'' is a round, warty, tuber-like stem (up to 50cm wide) or
haustorium
In botany and mycology, a haustorium (plural haustoria) is a rootlike structure that grows into or around another structure to absorb water or nutrients. For example, in mistletoe or members of the broomrape family, the structure penetrates t ...
with no roots, which draws nutrients from the roots of its host.
Its leaves do not photosynthesise, and are reduced to floral
bracts. Some plants have been aged in excess of 30 years old.
''Dactylanthus'' prefers damp but not waterlogged
soil
Soil, also commonly referred to as earth or dirt, is a mixture of organic matter, minerals, gases, liquids, and organisms that together support life. Some scientific definitions distinguish ''dirt'' from ''soil'' by restricting the former te ...
, and is often found at the head of small streams. It parasitises about 30 species of native hardwood trees and shrubs, preferring those growing in secondary forest on the margin of mature
podocarp
Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers, known in English as podocarps, comprising about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Pre ...
forest. Common hosts include patē/seven-finger (''
Schefflera digitata
''Schefflera digitata'', the patē, seven-finger, or umbrella tree, is a tree endemic to New Zealand belonging to the family Araliaceae. Māori names include: ''patē'', ''patatē'', ''patete'', and ''kōtētē''. It occurs in lowland to lower m ...
''), five-finger (''
Pseudopanax arboreus
''Pseudopanax arboreus'' or five finger (Māori: ''puahou'' or ''whauwhaupaku''), is a New Zealand native tree belonging to the family Araliaceae. It is one of New Zealand's more common native trees, being found widely in bush, scrub and garden ...
''), lemonwood (''
Pittosporum eugenioides
''Pittosporum eugenioides'', common names lemonwood or tarata, is a species of New Zealand native evergreen tree. Growing to tall by broad, it is conical when young but more rounded in shape when mature. Its leaves are mottled yellow-green wit ...
''), and putaputaweta (''
Carpodetus serratus
''Carpodetus serratus'' is an evergreen tree with small ovate or round, mottled leaves with a toothy margin, and young twigs grow zig-zag, and fragrant white flowers in 5 cm panicles and later black chewy berries. It is an endemic of New Zea ...
'').
Plants are
dioecious
Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...
, either male or female, and only rarely hermaphrodites. They flower between February and May
and are primarily
pollinated
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, ...
by the native
short-tailed bat. Analysis of fossil
coprolite
A coprolite (also known as a coprolith) is fossilized feces. Coprolites are classified as trace fossils as opposed to body fossils, as they give evidence for the animal's behaviour (in this case, diet) rather than morphology. The name is de ...
s suggest the
kākāpō
The kākāpō ( ; ; from the mi, kākāpō, , night parrot), also known as owl parrot (''Strigops habroptilus''), is a species of large, flightless, nocturnal, ground-dwelling parrots of the super-family Strigopoidea, endemic to New Zealan ...
(''Strigops habroptilus''), a flightless nocturnal parrot, was also a pollinator. Pollinated plants produce fruits slightly under long.
The nectar exudes a musky smell that resembles mammalian
sweat
Perspiration, also known as sweating, is the production of fluids secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals.
Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distribut ...
. Introduced
mice
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
and
rat
Rats are various medium-sized, long-tailed rodents. Species of rats are found throughout the order Rodentia, but stereotypical rats are found in the genus ''Rattus''. Other rat genera include ''Neotoma'' ( pack rats), ''Bandicota'' (bandicoot ...
s also pollinate them, although rats tend to destroy them.
Wood rose
The plant takes its common name from the attachment point between tuber and host. The host's roots expand to form a fluted disk, resembling a flower.
This growth was once dug up in the thousands, incidentally killing the ''Dactylanthus'', and sold as a collectable, often ending up as "a mantlepiece curiosity."
[''Ngā Manu Nature Reserve Newsletter.'' Autumn 2021. https://mailchi.mp/a0d33782d0f0/2021autumnnewsletter-4901193?e=520a976803] It is illegal to collect wood roses from public land, and harvesting this threatened species is strongly discouraged.
Taxonomy and naming
''Dactylanthus taylorii'' was first discovered by Europeans in March 1845, when Rev.
Richard Taylor came across it 12km south of
Raetihi
Raetihi, a small town in the center of New Zealand's North Island, is located at the junction of State Highways 4 and 49 in the Manawatū-Whanganui region. It lies in a valley between Tongariro and Whanganui National Parks, 11 kilometres west ...
.
In 1856 Taylor took a specimen to
Joseph Hooker
Joseph Hooker (November 13, 1814 – October 31, 1879) was an American Civil War general for the Union, chiefly remembered for his decisive defeat by Confederate General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.
Hooker had serv ...
in England, who formally described the species in 1859.
The genus name is derived from the
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
''(dáktulos),'' “finger”, and ''(ánthos),'' “flower”.
The
specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
''(taylorii'', originally ''Taylori)'' honours Rev. Taylor.
It is the only species in the genus.
Taylor stated that the
Māori
Māori or Maori can refer to:
Relating to the Māori people
* Māori people of New Zealand, or members of that group
* Māori language, the language of the Māori people of New Zealand
* Māori culture
* Cook Islanders, the Māori people of the C ...
name for wood rose was ''pua reinga'' (more grammatically, ''te pua o Te Rēinga'', "flower of the underworld", poetically rendered by Hooker as "flower of Hades").
Hill noted that at least in the
Taupō
Taupō (), sometimes written Taupo, is a town on the north-eastern shore of Lake Taupō, New Zealand's largest lake, in the central North Island. It is the largest urban area of the Taupō District, and the second-largest urban area in the Wai ...
region this name referred to a different parasitic plant,
''Thismia'', and claimed the Māori name for ''Dactylanthus'' was ''waewae atua'', "feet or toes of the spirits/gods".
The closest relative of ''Dactylanthus'' is ''
Hachettea
''Hachettea austrocaledonica'' is a species of parasitic plant in the Balanophoraceae family. It is endemic to New Caledonia and the only species of the genus ''Hachettea''. Its closest relative is '' Dactylanthus'' from New Zealand
New ...
'' from
New Caledonia
)
, anthem = ""
, image_map = New Caledonia on the globe (small islands magnified) (Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of New Caledonia
, map_caption = Location of New Caledonia
, mapsize = 290px
, subdivision_type = Sovereign st ...
. Along with ''
Mystropetalon
''Mystropetalon'' is a genus of flowering plants belonging to the family Balanophoraceae
The Balanophoraceae are a subtropical to tropical family of obligate parasitic flowering plants, notable for their unusual development and formerly obscur ...
'' from
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
, they comprise the Southern Hemisphere group Mystropetalaceae. All three are
holoparasites, lacking chlorophyll, and are descended from
hemiparasitic
A parasitic plant is a plant that derives some or all of its nutritional requirements from another living plant. They make up about 1% of angiosperms and are found in almost every biome. All parasitic plants develop a specialized organ called the ...
root parasites, which could
photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored i ...
e.
Distribution
''Dactylanthus'' is currently found only in the
North Island
The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...
, although there is evidence from fossil pollen it lived recently in the northern
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
.
It ranges from Puketi Forest in
Northland through the
Coromandel Peninsula
The Coromandel Peninsula ( mi, Te Tara-O-Te-Ika-A-Māui) on the North Island of New Zealand extends north from the western end of the Bay of Plenty, forming a natural barrier protecting the Hauraki Gulf and the Firth of Thames in the we ...
as far south as
Mt Bruce, and from
Mt Taranaki
Mount Taranaki (), also known as Mount Egmont, is a dormant stratovolcano in the Taranaki region on the west coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is the second highest point in the North Island, after Mount Ruapehu. The mountain has a secon ...
to Te Araroa on the
East Coast
East Coast may refer to:
Entertainment
* East Coast hip hop, a subgenre of hip hop
* East Coast (ASAP Ferg song), "East Coast" (ASAP Ferg song), 2017
* East Coast (Saves the Day song), "East Coast" (Saves the Day song), 2004
* East Coast FM, a ra ...
. It also lives on
Little Barrier Island
Little Barrier Island, or Hauturu in Māori language (the official Māori title is ''Te Hauturu-o-Toi''), lies off the northeastern coast of New Zealand's North Island. Located to the north of Auckland, the island is separated from the mainla ...
.
The plant is
cryptic
Cryptic may refer to:
In science:
* Cryptic species complex, a group of species that are very difficult to distinguish from one another
* Crypsis, the ability of animals to blend in to avoid observation
* Cryptic era, earliest period of the Earth
...
and hence hard to survey.
Many sites likely are known only to collectors, as the woody growth has commercial value. In 2020 plants from Pureora Forest were transplanted to
Zealandia
Zealandia (pronounced ), also known as (Māori) or Tasmantis, is an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust that subsided after breaking away from Gondwanaland 83–79 million years ago.Gurnis, M., Hall, C.E., and Lavier, L.L., ...
and
Otari-Wilton's Bush
Otari-Wilton's Bush is a native botanic garden and forest reserve located in Wilton in Wellington, New Zealand.
It is the only public botanic garden that is dedicated solely to the native plants of New Zealand.
Overview
Otari-Wilton's Bus ...
reserves in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by me ...
.
Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in
Waikanae
Waikanae (, ) is a town on the Kapiti Coast, 60 kilometres north of the Wellington CBD. The name is a Māori word meaning "waters" (''wai'') "of the grey mullet".
The town lies between Paraparaumu, eight kilometres to the southwest, and Ōtak ...
has two established, flowering sites as well as two sites added in 2021.
Conservation status
''Dactylanthus'' is regarded, as of 2012, as Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable. The
New Zealand Department of Conservation
The Department of Conservation (DOC; Māori: ''Te Papa Atawhai'') is the public service department of New Zealand charged with the conservation of New Zealand's natural and historical heritage.
An advisory body, the New Zealand Conservation Au ...
started a recovery plan in 1995. The wood rose is under threat from harvesting by collectors, browsing by
possums
Possum may refer to:
Animals
* Phalangeriformes, or possums, any of a number of arboreal marsupial species native to Australia, New Guinea, and Sulawesi
** Common brushtail possum (''Trichosurus vulpecula''), a common possum in Australian urban a ...
, rats,
pig
The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...
s and
deer
Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...
, habitat loss, and the rarity of its pollinators and seed dispersers.
Control of the browsing mammals that feed on ''Dactylanthus'', especially possums and
kiore
The Polynesian rat, Pacific rat or little rat (''Rattus exulans''), known to the Māori people, Māori as ''kiore'', is the third most widespread species of rat in the world behind the brown rat and black rat. The Polynesian rat originated in Sou ...
, is one conservation strategy. Another is to enclose the plants in protective cages. Because cages also exclude the plant's pollinators, its flowers then need to be hand-pollinated, and the resulting seed set turns out to be no better than in uncaged plants. ''Dactylanthus'' has recently been successfully translocated in the wild by sown seeds in closed-canopy forest.
References
External links
*New Zealand Department of Conservatio
''Dactylanthus'' informationRadio New Zealand: Our Changing Worldprogramme about ''Dactylanthus,'' with photographs, audio and video.
*''Dactylanthus'' discussed on RadioNZ ''Critter of the Week''
19 February 2016
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q5207774, from2=Q5797313
Balanophoraceae
Endemic flora of New Zealand
Endangered flora of New Zealand
Vulnerable flora of Oceania
Plants described in 1859
Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker
Parasites
Māori culture
Dioecious plants