The Auckland Botanical Society holds regular meetings and field trips throughout the year. Meetings are usually held on the first Wednesday of the month at 7:30 pm, and field trips on the third Saturday of the month, starting at 10 am.
Meeting Venue: Unitec, School of Natural Sciences, 139 Carrington Road, Mount Albert, Auckland-Gate 4, Building 115, Room 2005 , Level 2
(Annual Lucy Cranwell lecture is held at the Auckland Museum)
Evening Meeting: Wednesday 1st July
7:30pm Unitec
Book auction
Our (semi)annual botanical book auction is an
important fundraiser for the Lucy Cranwell Fund,
which supports research and travel grants for
students and recent graduates. This year's auction
includes a substantial contribution from the
library of the late John Braggins, together with
books donated by other members, covering plant
identification guides, ecological habitats, and
botanical guides from both New Zealand and
overseas. Students and early-career botanists in
particular may find this an excellent opportunity
to build their botanical and ecological libraries
while supporting the next generation of
researchers. Please encourage your student
friends to attend, and bring cash if you wish to
make purchases.
Talk: Ewen Cameron
Some local ecology of the Rose Bay suburban area,
Sydney, NSW
Rose Bay is an affluent harbourside eastern suburb of
Sydney, with plenty of large trees, waterside properties
and green spaces. The research for the talk is based on
the speakers eight holidays (2022-26) visiting family
living in the area, almost daily walks with young
grandchild, staying on the margin of the public golf
course (Woollahra Golf Club) and nightly walks with
family dog for its last toilet opportunity before retiring
for the night.
Some observed interactions between flora and fauna
will be discussed and illustrated, as well as similarities
and differences between Auckland’s flora and fauna,
weeds and cultivated species. Latitude of Rose Bay
(33° 52' S) and Auckland (36° 51' S).
Field trip: Saturday 18th July
Judges Bay cliff flora and Dove-
Myer Robinson Park
Leader: Ewen Cameron
Meeting time: 10 am
Meeting place: Judges Bay, bottom of Judges
Bay Road, lower margin of Dove-Myer
Robinson Park (there is car parking space here).
The walk will take us behind the research building and
downhill for some way. It is a little steep in parts. The
vegetation is largely coastal species. Leave plenty of
time to get there, as the traffic to the Matakana
market can be heavy. This is not a long walk, and
if people are so inclined we can return and stop
at Mathesons Bay and do the Kahuroa track,
which is a boardwalk downhill to the beach.
The walk will take us along the closed road (to
cars) to the Parnell Baths (closed for winter)
along the base of the weedy cliffs. There were
major landslides on the Waitemata
sandstone/mudstone cliffs during the Auckland
Anniversary floods (27 Jan 2023), followed by
additional landsides during Cyclone Gabrielle
(mid Feb 2023). The weeds are mainly
reclaiming the bare landslip areas with a
scattering of interesting natives. There has been
a limited amount of native planting post the
landslips. We’ll proceed to the other side of the
Baths, continue up the boardwalk, close to the
cliff plants, up to the bottom of St Stephens Ave
and Point Resolution Park. Proceed round the
edge of the park, up St Stephens Ave to Judge St
(100 m), down to the historic St Stephens Chapel
and cemetery, down the path and back to where
we started.
This is an easy walk with interesting, mainly
exotic species. The cliff-loop will be an
opportunity to brush-up on your weed
identification, including a few unusual species,
and think about the best way to manage such an
unstable site.
After the cliff loop, we can then take in some of
Dove-Myer Robinson Park, focused on the
unusual tree species, including the famous
historic Kilbryde pōhutukawa. The rose section
won’t be visited.
See: Ak Boc Soc Jl vol 72(2): 98-103, 2017, for
the write up for this ABS park visit on 19 Aug
2017.