Thorn Mountain

Katie and I had very close contact with a few kinds of native New Zealand thorn bushes. Our first day in Cass, we took a hike with Joe, Beth, and Katie up Mount Misery and Mount Horrible. We were not aware of the names of the mountains before our trek, so the whole hike we referred to it as Thorn Mountain. The climb up was steep. We traveled up through tall dry grasses and through I dense, mossy forest. We crossed a dirt and rock slip and headed up into prairie-like dry territory. We took a different route back down and ran into some very thorny plants. They were very stiff and had sharp barbs on the ends. Some bushes were knee high and others were well over our heads. The bramble was very think and difficult to climb down into without a machete. We bundled up in sweatshirts, mittens and raincoats, despite the heat, to keep our skin protected. We took a few photos of the most abundant thorn bushes we encountered in this subalpine environment and Brian helped us identify them as matagouri and dracophyllum.

Matagouri (Discaria toumatou) is the most widespread and common native shrub in New Zealand. It is also the only native plant with thorns. It is characterized by a branched and tangled array of thorns. It can grow up to five meters tall. It is considered a weed in parts of the South Island but is considered endangered in the North Island. This species is drought-tolerant and many farmers on the South Island will burn it or spray it. It’s also known as the Wild Irishman. See photos of this thorny mass below.

Dracophyllum filifolium is the other thorny plant we encountered. This plant had long, slender, needlelike leaves that had pointed barbs on the ends. Though this shrub would seem to be a monocot at first glance, it is actually a dicot. Dracophyllum is found in a variety of different species that are located throughout much of New Zealand. This shrub that we found seemed to be located at higher elevations compared to the Matagouri, which was observed at both low and higher elevations. See photos below. (Click to enlarge)