At Auckland Botanic Gardens, our Threatened Native Plant Garden brings to life some of the region’s rarest and most vulnerable. Designed to replicate natural ecosystems, the garden uses habitat-specific displays like salt marshes and sand dunes with interpretive signage to connect visitors with species they may never see in the wild, therefore enabling education and advocacy.

Many of Auckland’s threatened native plants are ephemeral, coastal, or early successional species which are challenging to manage in the wild. For this reason, they are prime candidates for ex-situ conservation. Unlike wilder landscapes shaped by tides, salt-laden winds, and natural disturbances, our garden must simulate these forces manually while simultaneously suppressing vigorous introduced weeds that outcompete our threatened species.

This garden also demands a high level of botanical knowledge from our staff and volunteers, especially in identifying and managing weedy species that often resemble natives. The garden can be mistakenly seen as unkempt, requiring active communication to shift expectations around what conservation looks like.

Over the past year, we have trialled the use of salt water (2% brine solution) to suppress weed growth in the salt marsh area. This has significantly reduced the number of persistent weed species, from over eighteen down to just one problem plant. The result has been a decrease in maintenance effort, and an encouraging success story of ecologically sensitive garden management without harmful impacts to the threatened plants on display.