The native dune plant pingao’s future is looking better thanks to prisoners from Manawatu Prison’s Corrections Inmate Employment (CIE) nursery who are germinating seeds for a recovery programme run by local schools.
The brilliant green and golden yellow or fiery orange pingao was once found on almost every sandy beach in New Zealand, but is now only found in a few spots or where it has been replanted.
The native dune plant pingao
The schools are growing pingao as a part of a Department of Conservation-led project to re-establish and maintain the plant.
However some schools were finding it hard to find a safe warm place to germinate the seeds, so CIE stepped in to offer the CIE nursery at Manawatu Prison, a specialist propagation nursery.
The nursery provides other CIE nurseries with tube stock and has some internal Corrections contracts, but was happy to help out the schools.
The seeds and cuttings were planted out and housed in the nursery’s tunnel houses and watered regularly, and prisoners working in the nursery are waiting for the seedlings to germinate. The seeders have a very successful strike rate with their native seeds and cuttings so things are looking positive.
When the seedlings are ready, the schools and wider community will do the planting, with CIE work parties available to help out if needed.
The CIE nursery provides training and employment in commercial-type work that will prepare prisoners for sustainable postrelease employment. While germinating the pingao was good experience, it was also away for the prisoners to give something back to the community.
“Hopefully the prisoners who helped germinate the pingao will one day be able to go down to the beach and see the results for themselves,” says CIE Instructor Charlotte Horton.
Pingao has a strong cultural, spiritual and traditional significance to Maori and is highly prized as a weaving material.
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ISSN 1178-8453