images Alpines in Tasmania & Australia on-line

[Harry Jans]

It has taken me a while but finally I had time to put many images from my trip to Australia & Tasmania on-line.
I travelled with 10 friends in January 2011 for about 10 days in and around the Snowy Mountains of Australia.
After that we had another 10 days in the northern part of Tasmania.
I must say the alpines at Ben Lomond and Cradle Mountain are FANTASTIC!!!

See for your self at: http://www.jansalpines.com/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=15

Enjoy your plant trip!

Harry Jans

[krisderaeymaeker]

Thanks Harry ! Very unusual plants , a lot of new plants , fantastic pictures , good to see and learn about this unknown region.

[Maggi Young]

Goodness me, Harry.... you are never at home!
We would say here in Aberdeen  he's "niver aff the heid o' the road".... meaning that you're always out and about 

Will enjoy seeing all your photos at leisure!

[Harry Jans]

Well, never at home? ..............eehhhh, Yes.
Just one week back from my Sichuan & Yunnan trip. Did see some wonderful new plants.
 
Will let you know when those new images are on-line.
That will take a few months.

[Lesley Cox]

The Australian mountains and those of Tasmania have a wonderful flora, in some ways like our own but with many different species as well, some much more colourful than the NZ alpine flora in general.

I haven't seen Bellendena montana in flower but perhaps Harry, you didn't see it in seed as I'm sure you would have taken pictures, if you had. It was probably too early for seed, this picture taken at Mt Field National Park Tasmania, in April.

[rob krejzl]

Always like a good bolster, even if only in pictures.

perhaps Harry, you didn't see it in seed as I'm sure you would have taken pictures, if you had.

As Lesley suggests the seed heads are quite spectacular and are supposed to be the origin of the common name for B. montana, mountain rocket.

[Harry Jans]

I only saw the Bellendena montana in flower.
A wonderful shrub. Have not seen it here.
Does anyone grows it in Europe?

[Harry Jans]

Here are two images of Bellendena montana

[Lesley Cox]

I know the seeds are jolly hard to germinate. They are small dark seeds inside the inflated red capsule. I've had two tries with no joy.

There was something about it in an AGS Bulletin a while back, maybe a couple of years?

[Maggi Young]

Here are the references to Bellendena montana in the  SRGC Journal:
Bellendena montana : 11/261*, 268; 19/233;

20/444; 23/388; 123/50, 51C, 52C

— — habitat : 123/50C

...and in the AGS Bulletin : Bellendena montana : 4/147, 39/34, 40/25, 55/356-

7P.C.*, 58/233

[David Lyttle]

Hello Harry,

I have just briefly browsed through some of your Tasmanian images: really lovely, clear photos, some familiar plants like the Donatia novae zelandiae and other totally unfamiliar to me like the Richea scoparia (related to our Dracophyllums) but more spectacular. It is an intriguing question: Did the the Tasmanian alpines come east to colonise New Zealand or did New Zealand alpines go west against the prevailing winde to colonise Australia. We have greater numbers in some shared genera such as Aciphylla and Celmisia but other genera are not present in New Zealand at all. The New Zeland flora as a whole seems to be a depauperate version of the Australian flora with some Australian genera that were once here ( eg Causaurina) now extinct. Perhaps these losses were compensated for by our alpine flora evolving more species during periods of coooler climate. Many thanks for posting your images  I will certainly go back and look at them some more.

best wishes,

David

[Harry Jans]

Dear Maggi,
Thanks for your detailed information. Much appreciated! Will have a look at those bulletins.

Hi David,
An interesting question about the species difference. In the whole I think many species in NZ & Tasmania look very similar.
(there is a connection)
I hope to visit NZ in January 2013 to see your wonderful alpine flora myself.

Cheers, Harry

[Tim Ingram]

Harry - wonderful to see all the images of Tasmanian alpines. I worked there for six months back in the 1980's and it is a stunning environment, especially parts of the untouched (virtually) south-west. One of my plant memories is the (I think) only deciduous tree in Tassie, Nothofagus gunnii high up in the Western Arthurs. It colours beautifully in the winter. Would love to go back again sometime!

[Lesley Cox]

Harry, what do you mean you HOPE to. We're counting on it.