The Native Plant Trail
Some June 2018-19 observations of the Native Plant Trail:
https://inaturalist.nz/observations?order=asc&order_by=observed_on&place_id=any&subview=grid&verifiable=any&field:KCRENH19%20Survey=Path
And some of the less-recognised native plants bordering the path:
https://inaturalist.nz/posts/24949-wild-native-pathside-vegetation
Background:
When the path was constructed, its primary function was to enable the public to experience the natural heritage along the stream. It has no connections with housing or roads, though at each end it connects to a public access walkway; at the Eastern end, the Native Plant Trail starts as a fork from an older path between Glenfield College and Valecrest Place via a steep set of steps. At the Western end, just upstream of the tidal reach of the stream, the Trail connects with a footbridge and short walkway between Kaipatiki Rd and Fernlea Rise.
The quickest and easiest walk between these two points is along Kaipatiki Rd, where there is a concrete footpath on the Glenfield College and Orchards Retirement Village side, and a mown grass path under the canopy of the native planting on the other side of the road, at the top of the streamside bank.
So the Native Plant Trail is was created solely to provide a bushwalk, through lush, dense, diverse and vulnerable habitat, including many species not seen in many local reserves, such as kotukutuku, toropapa, Kohia, bush lawyer, kiekie, puawhananga, mangemange, many species of native ferns and mosses, giant centipede, and peripatus.
The path was kept as far as possible from the streambank to protect the integrity of the canopy shading the stream. It's design enabled enjoyment and observation of flora and fauna, without disturbing the insects or the progress of revegetation by walking on it.
Short boardwalks were built over areas of permanent runoff at the bottom of steep banks, and across culverts both naturally formed and eroded by piped stormwater and sewerage.
To minimise light invasion and interruption of habitat, the path was no more than a metre wide. It's level surface was created by cutting with a spade on the uphill side, leaving a low bank of bare clay which within a few months was green with fern sporelings and mosses,.
Many ringbarked dead wattles along the Trail were cut to ensure public safety, and these were used where convenient to edge the path.(The areas of mass wattle felling also destroyed canopy for a few years, and those areas of light invasion needed the same monitoring and weeding as the unvegetated streambanks until canopy was restored). So on the dowhill side of thepath. existing low native vegetation was bordered not only by the rearrangement of nearby logs, but also by many pieces of felled wattle. As these decayed, they provided invertebrate habitat, eventually adding woody material to the path surface to help form the vegetative swale necessary to drain and filter rain and runoff before it entered the stream. Channelling of stormwater was avoided because of the visible ongoing erosion of streambanks in other areas where channelling had been done.
It was expected that, if necessary, restoration work and walks would be postponed till drier weather, or additional leaf litter and woody material would be applied to prevent slipping, rather than imperil the restoration of the stream by impermeable surfacing, loose metal, or extensive construction with treated timber.
The path surface was initially wood chip mulch, which absorbed moisture and became boggy.
Some sections were then filled with dead pampas stumps, covered with a smooth surface of dead pampas foliage, a combination which drained well and rotted slowly.
In some places the path drained adequately through its natural accumulation of leaf litter, replenished as needed with freshly fallen twigs, bark and tree fern fronds, abundant throughout most of the Trail's length. As the pathside vegetation grew taller and denser, it would provide shade deep enough to protect the path from most weed invasion.
It was hoped that the experience of such diversity and beauty would attract the new visitors to this Reserve to learn something of its vulnerability and of its need for protection by changes in gardening practices and plant choices, with at least some of them learning to identify a weed they could monitor and remove during their walks, or to supplement the path surface with a fern frond or two on each visit, especially in Winter when it becomes slippery or boggy.
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