DoC's threatened species ambassador, Nicola Toki talks about one of her favourite native plants, Pingao (known as Pingao in the South Island) - the golden sand sedge.
Pikao has plays the vital role of binding sand, which forms gentle, undulating dunes. Unfortunately the introduction of marram has meant that it got squeezed out, and marram binds sand in a much tighter fashion, creating high, steep sand dunes, which the pingao can't live on as well.
