It's Puawhananga Time

Puawhananga blooms beside the Foveaux Walkway

Have you noticed the stunning blooms of of our lovely puawhananga, or Clematis paniculata? It's out in force all over Bluff Hill at the moment. Yesterday as I was scraping a rat out of a stoat trap beside Flagstaff Rd I watched two tui feeding in a patch of the flowers that had strewn themselves all over the tops of some manuka. Indeed a tear was brought to my eye, whether from the scene of the tui or the smell of decomposing rodent I'm unsure.

Puawhananga is found all over NZ from coast to 1000 metres a.s.l. (I just learnt that means 'above sea level'). It isn't a threatened species and favours spots where things are a bit damp underfoot and there is opportunity for it to crawl its way up to the canopy and bask in the sun.

One issue with Pua is that it's often mistaken for the introduced destructive weedy vine Clematis vitalba, or Old Man's Beard (or O.M.B for you acronym lovers). It does look quite similar to the zealous weedbuster, -I know this because I'm pretty sure I destroyed a large amount of Pua at my parent's place a few Winters ago, hopefully I didn't do a good job.

The main differences are as follows...

• Pua has large flowers, OMB has small flowers
• The vines of OMB have obvious vertical ribs, Pua has no ribs
• Pua flowers from Sep-Nov, OMB flowers from Dec-March
• OMB is deciduous, Pua is evergreen
• They both have the same distinctive fluffy seedheads, but you will see Pua's in midsummer and OMB's in Autumn.

For more info on getting rid of OMB consult with the Weedbusters website. For more info on loving Puawhananga check out NZ Plant Conservation Network's site; there are links to both under the 'Cool Websites' bit on the sidebar. Flash.