Jacobaea vulgaris, syn. Senecio jacobaea, is a very common wild flower in the family Asteraceae that is native to northern Eurasia, usually in dry, open places, and has also been widely distributed as a weed elsewhere.
Haumia-tiketike is the god of all uncultivated vegetative food in Māori mythology. He is particularly associated with the starchy rhizome of the Pteridium esculentum, which became a major element of the Māori diet in former times. He contrasts with Rongo, the god of kūmara and all cultivated food plants.
The honey locust, also known as the thorny locust or thorny honeylocust, is a deciduous tree in the family Fabaceae, native to central North America where it is mostly found in the moist soil of river valleys. Honey locust trees are highly adaptable to different environments, and the species has been introduced worldwide. Outside its natural range it can be an aggressive, damaging invasive species.
Grayanotoxins are a group of closely related neurotoxins named after Leucothoe grayana, a plant native to Japan and named for 19th-century American botanist Asa Gray. Grayanotoxin I is also known as andromedotoxin, acetylandromedol, rhodotoxin and asebotoxin. Grayanotoxins are produced by Rhododendron species and other plants in the family Ericaceae. Honey made from the nectar and so containing pollen of these plants also contains grayanotoxins and is commonly referred to as mad honey.
Passiflora edulis, commonly known as passion fruit, is a vine species of passion flower native to the region of southern Brazil through Paraguay to northern Argentina. It is cultivated commercially in tropical and subtropical areas for its sweet, seedy fruit.
Amelanchier arborea, is native to eastern North America from the Gulf Coast north to Thunder Bay in Ontario and Lake St. John in Quebec, and west to Texas and Minnesota.
Agrostemma githago, the common corn-cockle, is a herbaceous annual flowering plant a member of Caryophyllaceae, also called the pink family or the carnation family of plants. The name of this genus is derived from Greek: agros (αργοσ) “field” and stemma (στέμμα) “garland, crown."
Tutu is a common name of Māori origin for plants in the genus Coriaria found in New Zealand.
Coriaria is the sole genus in the family Coriariaceae, which was described by Linnaeus in 1753. It includes 14 species of small trees, shrubs and subshrubs, with a widespread but disjunct distribution across warm temperate regions of the world, occurring as far apart as the Mediterranean region, southern and eastern Asia, New Zealand, the Pacific Ocean islands, and Central and South America.
Sedum acre, commonly known as the goldmoss stonecrop, mossy stonecrop, goldmoss sedum, biting stonecrop, and wallpepper, is a perennial flowering plant in the family Crassulaceae. It is native to Europe, northern and western Asia and North Africa, but is also naturalised in North America, Japan, and New Zealand.
Coriaria myrtifolia, called in English redoul, is a shrub that grows to 2–3 m tall. Myrtifolia means myrtle-like leaves.
Bees can suffer serious effects from toxic chemicals in their environments. These include various synthetic chemicals, particularly insecticides, as well as a variety of naturally occurring chemicals from plants, such as ethanol resulting from the fermentation of organic materials. Bee intoxication can result from exposure to ethanol from fermented nectar, ripe fruits, and manmade and natural chemicals in the environment.
Ixerba brexioides, the sole species in the genus Ixerba, is a bushy tree with thick, narrow, serrated, dark green leaves and panicles of white flowers with a green heart. The fruit is a green capsule that splits open to reveal the black seeds partly covered with a fleshy scarlet aril against the white inside of the fruit. Ixerba is an endemic of the northern half of the North Island of New Zealand. Common names used in New Zealand are tawari for the tree and whakou when in flower. It is assigned to the family Strasburgeriaceae.
Beekeeping in New Zealand is reported to have commenced in 1839 with the importing of two skep hives by Mary Bumby, a missionary. It has since become an established industry as well a hobby activity.
Tutin is a poisonous plant derivative found in New Zealand tutu plants. It acts as a potent antagonist of the glycine receptor, and has powerful convulsant effects. It is used in scientific research into the glycine receptor. It is sometimes associated with outbreaks of toxic honey poisoning when bees feed on honeydew exudate from the sap-sucking passion vine hopper insect, when the vine hoppers have been feeding on the sap of tutu bushes. Toxic honey is a rare event and is more likely to occur when comb honey is eaten directly from a hive that has been harvesting honeydew from passionvine hoppers feeding on tutu plants.
Scolypopa australis, commonly known as the passionvine hopper, is a species of insect in the Ricaniidae family of planthoppers (Fulgoroidea) that is native to Australia and was introduced to New Zealand. Despite its name, they are found not only on passion vines, but on many plant species, including kiwifruit and the lantana. Brown with partly transparent wings, they are 5–6 mm long as adults and 5 mm as nymphs. As an adult they look somewhat like a moth to the untrained eye, and walk "like a ballerina". The nymphs are wingless and are informally known as fluffy bums. When sufficiently aroused they will hop off their plant "with a 'snap'". Like all planthoppers they suck plant sap. This leaves a honeydew secretion which bees gather.
Greta Barbara Stevenson was a New Zealand botanist and mycologist. She described many new species of Agaricales.
Brachyglottis repanda, the rangiora or bushman's friend, is a small, bushy tree or tall shrub endemic to New Zealand. It grows to a height of 5 to 7 meters. The petioles of the leaves have a characteristic groove up to 10 cm long. The large leaves with a soft furry underside have been referred to as "bushman's toilet paper".
Coriaria pottsiana, commonly called the Hikurangi tutu or Pott's tutu, is a rare low-growing sub-alpine perennial summer-green shrub, only known to exist on a small grassy scree slope behind the tramping hut on Mount Hikurangi in the Gisborne Region of New Zealand's North Island. The Mt Hikurangi tramping hut is found at 37°54′22″S178°3′31″E.
