Central Park, Wellington

“What is it? It’s huge”

I got the above txt and a photo of a bolete from my son Lachie while he was walking in Central Park during Queen’s Birthday weekend. I asked directions and off I went to see for myself. It had been a long time since I had been to Central Park.

The wood of Central Park

Central Park is 13ha of land on the flanks of a deep gully cut by the Moturua stream and bounded by Brookyln and Ohiro roads.

Central Park, Wellington [photo Google Map]

The area was probably cleared of native vegetation not long after the establishment of Wellington and parts were used rubbish tips.

Tram Accident on Brooklyn Hill 3 May 1907. The farmland to the right will become Central Park [photo Alexander Turnbull Library]

Tree planting began in 1907 and its development as a park began in 1913 including a formal garden at the entrance at the city end.

Looking up Central Park (1920s) with main entrance lower left, and the first and middle path heading up the hill. The small trees on the lawn in the centre are possibly the southern live oaks [photo Alexander Turnbull Library]

Central Park is now a mixed woodland of pines, eucalypts, deciduous trees such as elms, limes. There is a significant regeneration of a native understorey beneath the pines and eucalypts.

Track following the Moturua stream with regenerating native vegetation under planted eucalypts [photo Pseudopanax]

Open your eyes and look

Walking in the main entrance I saw several Amanita muscaria growing near the base of a multi-stemmed pohutukawa [Metrosideros excela]. A quick looked around and I found a young oak on the other side of the pohutukawa, explaining the presence of the Amanita muscaria.

Amanita muscaria and Chalciporus piperatus [photo Geoff Ridley]

I turned to the right where the path splits into three and I followed the central path which wanders through a pohutukawa woodland. Growing under these trees were more Amanita muscaria, Chalciporus piperatus, Cortinarius sp. and Russula amoenlens (?). But how could this be as I could not see any ectomycorrhizal trees only pohutukawa? So I went and looked at one of these pohutukawa and I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment. These weren’t pohutukawa but rather North American southern live oak [but Quercus virginiana]. I good lesson in not assuming but actually looking and seeing.

Cortinarius sp. [photo Geoff Ridley]

A little further on, and still under the oaks, I found Lachie’s bolete. A single big fruit body  – a beautiful specimen of Boletus edulis – and a small well decayed one nearby. This is the third location I am aware of and each with a different host tree species – Pinus radiata, Quercus robur and Quercus virginiana.

Boletus edulis [photo Geoff Ridley]

Boletus edulis [photo Geoff Ridley]

Also not far from the bolete was a group of Hebeloma crustuliniforme (?).

Hebeloma crustuliniforme (?). [photo Geoff Ridley]

Under the linden tree

Alone the edge of the third path which follows the Moturua stream up the centre of the Park is a row of limes or linden trees [Tilia cordata]. The lindens are immediately adjacent to the southern live oaks. These trees are of interest because Greta Stevenson wrote of finding a flush of Russula pectinata under these trees in April 1978. Jerry Cooper has been looking into the identity of this fungus. He is currently calling it Russula amoenlens but says the taxonomy is a mess. I have collected some of the Russula to send to him.

Russula amoenlens [photo Geoff Ridley]

Further reading

Stevenson G 1981. Antipodean association between Russula pectinata and planted limes. Bulletin of the British Mycological Society 15(1, April): 59-61.

Wellington City Council 2013. Wellington Town Belt Management Plan June 2013.