Meetings & Field Trips
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 3rd July
Plant of the month: Maureen Young on
Notogrammitis rawlingsii and its often
association with hard beech (Fuscospora
truncata)
Talk: Pin Jia Chan (Lucy Cranwell 2024
recipient) on plant community and ecosystem
impacts of kauri dieback. (30 mins)
Pin Jia is a PhD student at the University of
Auckland studying the impacts of kauri dieback
on plant communities and carbon sequestration
within kauri forests of the Waitakere Ranges. In
this talk he will discuss how kauri dieback
might be shifting plant communities backwards
in ecological succession and how carbon
sequestration in these forests is affected.
Talk: Ewen Cameron on Singapore Botanic
Gardens et al. (30 mins)
Based on a 3-night stopover in Singapore in
2019, Ewen re-visited the well-established
Botanic Gardens which date back to 1859. In
the early days it was managed by several
famous botanists, including: Ridley, Holttum
and Corner. Today the garden supports over
10,000 species over 82 ha, themed areas are
frequent, like the Orchid Garden. Historically
the gardens have played an important role in
trialling timber, fruit and ornament species to
see how suitable they are to grow in this part of
the world, only 137 km north of the equator.
The talk will touch on some of the history of the
gardens, show some examples of plants and the
local wildlife.
Field trip: Saturday 20th July
Mangawhai Harbour Boardwalk
Leader: Maureen Young
Meeting time: 10am
Meeting place: Estuary Drive, Mangawhai
At Mangawhai village, with the G.A.S. station on
the left, take the first left turn onto the road to
Mangawhai Heads. Go around two big round-
abouts and at the end of a long straight over the
causeway, turn right onto Estuary Drive, parking
on the roadside near the intersection.
The harbour boardwalk was partly destroyed by
last year’s storms but has just been repaired in
time for our walk. It is part boardwalk, part
gravel path, with no mud. The estuarine botany
will have plenty to interest us, with plenty of
sedges to test us. It is a “there and back” walk that
will take a couple of hours at a botanical pace.
Coffee lovers may like to have lunch at one of the
several nearby cafes.
