Flax flowers emerging.

This is the flower of the New Zealand flax. A very different plant from European flax. This is a "herb", Phormium tenax. The fibrous leaves were long used by Maori for weaving baskets, fish traps and many other uses. They named this plant Harakeke.


The flowers emerge along a long leafless woody spine, and provide tui with a source of nectar. We have planted a number of different cultivars along the grass verge by the road. On Council land. Which we can do provided it does not interfere with their access for services. We hope to produce an effect somewhat akin to what the curator of the Otari Native Plant Museum (in Wellington) called a solid wall. This effectively curbs many of the imported weeds, as well as creating a feeding ground for tui and other birds.