Tecomanthe speciosa

This twining and climbing evergreen with thick, glossy, pinnate leaves grows vigorously in the New Zealand plantings of the Pavilions - west ridge and furrow section - and this year has produced a couple of dense racemes of funnel shaped, pale yellow-green flowers hanging from a vertical branch.  This is the only way it will flower and it has become popular in frost free climates grown over arches and pergolas as well as as a sturdy fence screen.

The story of the survival of this once extremely rare plant is extraordinary: endemic to Great Island of the Three Kings Islands 55km north of New Zealand, only one plant remained in the world when a NZ government scientific survey was conducted in 1945.  Four goats which were introduced to Great Island in 1889 to provide food for potential castaways in these treacherous seas had produced nearly 400 offspring by 1945.  These had decimated the island’s vegetation but the one remaining T. speciosa was out of their reach.