Otari-Wilton’s Bush Reserve was 100 years old in August 2006

About Otari

Otari-Wilton’s Bush is a natural native forest ecosystem, and also the only botanic garden in New Zealand dedicated solely to native plants.

Before 1840, Maori regularly walked through the area and crossed the stream where we still cross today.
Over 100 years ago, Wilton’s Bush, then owned by Job Wilton, was a already a popular recreation destination for Wellingtonians.

100 years ago, on 23 August 1906, Otari-Wilton's Bush was declared a Reserve. It now contains 100 hectares of bush and stream plus 100s and 100s of native plants, birds, fish, insects and other fascinating living creatures.
 

The forest

The forest in the reserve is the largest remnant of the original forest in Wellington and contains trees as old as 800 years. It also contains large areas of regenerating native forest – some is regenerating naturally and some is planted through revegetation projects.

Because it is a natural ecosystem there are many thousands of different species living together and depending on each other.

Some plant and invertebrate counts have already been done, and our Bioblitz in March 2007 added many more new species to what we previously knew was living in Otari. We even found out about the microscopic diatoms in the streams. And there are the fungi…

The plant collections

The plant collections now contain 1200 species – including native hybrids and cultivars. There are plants from many different parts of the country in the collections.

The plant collections include alpine plants, ferns, threatened species, divaricating plants, flaxes…