Dactylanthus taylorii
Template:Short description Template:Redirect Template:Use New Zealand English Template:Speciesbox
Dactylanthus taylorii, commonly known in English as wood rose<ref name=":0">Template:Cite journal</ref> and in Māori as Template:Lang<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> ("flower of the underworld"), is a fully parasitic flowering plant, the only one endemic to New Zealand. The host tree responds to the presence of Dactylanthus by forming a burl-like structure that resembles a fluted wooden rose (hence the common name). When the flowers emerge on the forest floor, they are pollinated by a ground-foraging species of native bat.
Description
Dactylanthus taylorii is a round, warty, tuber-like stem (up to 50 cm wide) or haustorium with no roots, which draws nutrients from the roots of its host.<ref name="pua-o-te-reinga">Template:Cite web</ref> Its leaves do not photosynthesise, and are reduced to floral bracts.<ref name=":0" /> Some plants have been aged in excess of 30 years old.<ref name=pua-o-te-reinga /> Dactylanthus prefers damp but not waterlogged soil, and is often found at the head of small streams. It parasitises about 30 species of native hardwood trees and shrubs, preferring those growing in secondary forest on the margin of mature podocarp forest. Common hosts include patē/seven-finger (Schefflera digitata), five-finger (Neopanax arboreus), lemonwood (Pittosporum eugenioides), and putaputaweta (Carpodetus serratus).<ref name=":0" />
Wood rose
The plant takes its common name from the attachment point between tuber and host. The host's roots expand to form a fluted disk, resembling a flower.<ref name="pua-o-te-reinga" /> This growth was once dug up in the thousands, incidentally killing the Dactylanthus, and sold as a collectable, often ending up as "a mantlepiece curiosity."<ref name=":1">Ngā Manu Nature Reserve Newsletter. Autumn 2021. https://mailchi.mp/a0d33782d0f0/2021autumnnewsletter-4901193?e=520a976803</ref> It is illegal to collect wood roses from public land, and harvesting this threatened species is strongly discouraged.<ref name="pua-o-te-reinga" />
Taxonomy and naming
Dactylanthus taylorii was first discovered by Europeans in March 1845, when Rev. Richard Taylor came across it 12 km south of Raetihi.<ref name=":0" /> In 1856 Taylor took a specimen to Joseph Hooker in England, who formally described the species in 1859.<ref name=Hooker>Template:Cite journal</ref> The genus name is derived from the Greek Template:GreekFont (dáktulos), “finger”, and Template:GreekFont (ánthos), “flower”.<ref name="Hooker" /> The specific epithet (taylorii, originally Taylori) honours Rev. Taylor.<ref name="Hooker" /> It is the only species in the genus.
Taylor stated that the Māori name for wood rose was pua reinga (more grammatically, te pua o Te Rēinga, "flower of the underworld", poetically rendered by Hooker as "flower of Hades").<ref name="Hooker" /> Hill noted that at least in the Taupō region this name referred to a different parasitic plant, Thismia,<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and claimed the Māori name for Dactylanthus was waewae atua, "feet or toes of the spirits/gods".<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
The closest relative of Dactylanthus is Hachettea from New Caledonia. Along with Mystropetalon from South Africa, they comprise the Southern Hemisphere group Mystropetalaceae. All three are holoparasites, lacking chlorophyll, and are descended from hemiparasitic root parasites, which could photosynthesise.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
Reproduction
Plants are dioecious, either male or female, and only rarely hermaphrodites.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> They flower between February and May<ref name="pua-o-te-reinga" /> and are primarily pollinated by the native short-tailed bat.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Male flowers produce nectar that provides a simple but very sweet fragrance which promotes bat-pollination.<ref>Cummings, G., Anderson, S., Dennis, T., Toth, C., & Parsons, S. (2014). Competition for pollination by the lesser short‐tailed bat and its influence on the flowering phenology of some New Zealand endemics. Journal of Zoology, 293(4), 281–288. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12147</ref> Analysis of fossil coprolites suggest the kākāpō (Strigops habroptilus), a flightless nocturnal parrot, was also a pollinator.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Pollinated plants produce fruits slightly under Template:Convert long.<ref name="nzpcn" /> The nectar exudes a musky smell that resembles mammalian sweat.<ref>Template:Cite conference</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Introduced mice and rats also pollinate them, although rats tend to destroy them.
Distribution
Dactylanthus is currently found only in the North Island, although there is evidence from fossil pollen it lived recently in the northern South Island.<ref name=":0" /> It ranges from Puketi Forest in Northland through the Coromandel Peninsula as far south as Mt Bruce, and from Mt Taranaki to Te Araroa on the East Coast. In 2025 a remnant population was discovered near Wainuiomata, the first time the species had been observed in the wild in the Wellington region since 1914.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> It also lives on Little Barrier Island.<ref name="pua-o-te-reinga" /> The plant is cryptic and hence hard to survey.<ref name="pua-o-te-reinga" /> Many sites likely are known only to collectors, as the woody growth has commercial value. In 2020 plants from Pureora Forest were transplanted to Zealandia and Otari-Wilton's Bush reserves in Wellington.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Ngā Manu Nature Reserve in Waikanae has two established, flowering sites as well as two sites added in 2021.<ref name=":1" />
Conservation status
Dactylanthus is regarded, as of 2012, as Threatened – Nationally Vulnerable. The New Zealand Department of Conservation started a recovery plan in 1995.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> The wood rose is under threat from harvesting by collectors, browsing by possums, rats, pigs and deer, habitat loss, and the rarity of its pollinators and seed dispersers.<ref name="nzpcn" /><ref name="pua-o-te-reinga" /><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Control of the browsing mammals that feed on Dactylanthus, especially possums and kiore, is one conservation strategy. Another is to enclose the plants in protective cages. Because cages also exclude the plant's pollinators, its flowers then need to be hand-pollinated, and the resulting seed set turns out to be no better than in uncaged plants.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Dactylanthus has recently been successfully translocated in the wild by sown seeds in closed-canopy forest.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>
In May 2025, a wild population of Dactylanthus was discovered in the Wainuiomata Water Collection Area near Wellington. The species had been thought to be extinct in the Wellington Region for over a century. A management plan will be prepared to assist in preserving this wild population.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
References
External links
- New Zealand Department of Conservation Dactylanthus information
- Radio New Zealand: Our Changing World programme about Dactylanthus, with photographs, audio and video.
- Dactylanthus discussed on RadioNZ Critter of the Week, 19 February 2016