Kauri seedlings from Colin McCahon house planted on Rotoroa Island

Tuesday, 31 July 2018

Kauri seedlings from the famous Colin McCahon House have been planted on an island in the Hauraki Gulf.

Last weekend, volunteers from the Kauri Trust 2000 and Bank of New Zealand planted 100 kauri seedlings at Rotoroa Island.

The seedlings were grown from seeds of kauri that surround the house in the Auckland suburb of Titirangi.

Colin McCahon is considered one of the country's most prominent artists and his home is open to visitors and resident artists.  

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Preferring not to transport the seedlings from Waitākere to the Coromandel, Rotoroa island was chosen as the site for the seedlings. 

McCahon House Trust chair Cynthia Smith said kauri featured 'prolifically' in McCahon's paintings.

Many of the kauri at the McCahon house have dieback disease, Smith said. 

The disease is officially known as Phytophthora agathidicida and spreads microscopic spores through soil that attach onto kauri roots.

The spores leach nutrients and the trees starve to death.  

Kauri dieback disease was discovered in the Waitākere Ranges in 2006 and was formally identified two years later. Since then, thousands of kauri have died throughout the ranges from the disease.

'So this replanting of disease-free seedlings ensures the continuity of this important taonga from this iconic site,' Smith said. 

'The planting of these seedlings, harvested from the trees surrounding his former house and studio and raised disease-free by Auckland Bio-Security and the Botanical Gardens, represents a chance to re-establish the trees in another location.'