Parks week at Otari Wilton’s Bush

By Frank Neill

This week is parks week, and ari Wilton’s Bush is featuring alongside other parks up and down New Zealand.

Parks week began in Wellington with a community clean-up at ri Wilton’s Bush on 4 March.

From 10am to 2pm volunteers helped clean up a slip at the park.

Although parks week finishes on 12 March, it will take in the ri Seminar Series, which began on 7 March and continues on 14 March.

Dr Heidi Meudt presented the 7 March seminar on the Taxonomic revision of native New Zealand forget-me-nots (Myosotis, Boraginaceae).

Dr Meudt is a Botany Curator at Te Papa whose collections-based research focuses on the evolution and classification of native New Zealand flowering plants, especially forget-me-nots (Myosotis).

She also studies native foxgloves (Ourisia), plantains (Plantago), and hebes (Veronica) throughout the southern hemisphere.

Oscar Clendon will present the 14 March seminar on the role of climate in driving fruiting declines for Aotearoa’s most abundant fleshy fruited tree: Beilschmiedia tawa.

Mr Clendon recently completed a Master’s degree in ecology and conservation at Auckland University.

His thesis investigated environmental drivers of fruit crop characteristics for the indigenous tree tawa in an effort to explain observed declines in fruit size and abundance.