Surviving in Suburbia

We have a bit of a thing for urban biodiversity. After all, it proves that natural plant communities and ecosystems have got some fight in them - sometimes quite a lot of fight. It also does away with the notion of nature comprising places that are inherently separate to human settlement.

One example that we recently visited on Auckland’s North Shore demonstrated this juxtaposition ably; with the cast-offs of urban detritus standing right next to a nationally threatened herb, Leptinella tenella, that has somehow managed an unfeasible act of survival along the margins of this urban stream.

L. tenella finds its advantage in the dynamic zone where flooding frequently clears away competing vegetation – including exotic weeds. A ribbon-like remnant tracing a narrow band less than 5m from the monoculture of mown Council lawns and the backyards of suburbia.