Welcome to our new Rātā Shrine
Some visitors have been wondering about a structure that’s appeared discreetly in the Ōtari epiphyte garden. We can tell you now it is a ‘rātā shrine’, and it’s quite a story. Designer Adam Ellis works in creative fields; industrial product design and urban public gardens, integrating designed structural elements within lived landscapes (see pollen.net.nz). He also loves rātā. Years ago, supported by the then Ōtari supervisor Anita Benbrook, Adam volunteered at Ōtari-Wilton’s Bush. He said he learned so much he wanted to ‘give back’, so recently approached manager Tim Park with an idea to design a ‘living structure’ that celebrates rātā. He’s built a few other iterations around the country but none like this one. True to Ōtari’s ethos of celebrating and protecting rare native plants, this new structure features the white-flowering rātā moehau (Bartlett’s rātā, Metrosideros barlettii), which is close to extinction. Only 13 plants remain in the wild, in the Far North. Most rātā begin life as epiphytes and some grow into trees. This new tripod-shaped structure is designed to rot away over time and its supports are filled with sphagnum that will host tendrils reaching to the ground from the rātā planted at the top. It will take many years, but eventually, all going well, the plant at the top will become a self-supporting tree. We are grateful for Adam’s creative inspiration, to Ōtari staff who enabled the project, and especially for the generosity of John Randall, who funded the project as a living memorial to his late wife Robin, daughter of noted botanist, photographer and Ōtari supporter, Olaf John.
In fact, we are blessed with two flowering Rātā moehau trees in Ōtari, both grown from cuttings of the same wild individual from the Far North.
Posted: 21 October 2023