New Zealand field trips June 2010

[Maggi Young]

The violet species, if you're interested in bright and shiny stones Maggi, beats amethysts any day.

Yes, button earrings come to mind.... though they do appear a little ... slimy

[David Lyttle]

The variety of these funghi is terrific, David. Would you know if any (I'm thinking particularly of the red and purple ones) can be used for dying  purposes? They look likely candidates for a bit of home wool-dying to spice up the knitting or weaving of some enterprising craftsperson.

Maggi, I dont think you would be able to collect enough to be useful. Some people believe the bright colours evolved to attract birds like moas to disperse the spores. I gave a couple of bright red ones to the chooks one day as an experiment. They immediately grabbed them but did not eat them. Maybe something bigger (and more stupid) like a moa would eat them or perhaps just scratch them up and spread them around.

I will get back on topic and show some alpine photos

1.  Cobb Valley a botanist's paradise

2. Trilobite Mounds, Cobb Valley Note the different vegetation types in a relatively small area.

3. Cobb Reservoir at sunrise

4. Melicytus alpinus This shrub is covered with lichens and has been browsed by hares. The hares shelter under it and then jump up on top and clip the shoots. ( its a bit like burning your house bit by bit to keep warm)

5. Pimelea aff sericovillosa This grey hairy Pimelea has not yet been formally named. (at this stage I think it might have been given a name but it has not yet been published so I cannot tell you)

6. View of Hoary Head home of Clematis marmomaria. Hoary Head is the flat-topped peak left of centre. If anyone wishes to go up there to plunder the Clematis marmomaria they will most likely get lost.

7. Lake Sylvester Hut. The hut is on bushline about 2 hours walk up the hill.

8,9 Views taken outside Lake Sylvester Hut. Note the white crunchy stuff on the ground.

10 Bog pine (Halocarpus bidwillii) near Lake Sylvester Hut. The bog pine is growing in a large swampy clearing surrounded by beech (Nothofagus) forest

[cohan]

interesting views as usual..looks like a very manageable mid-winter!

[David Lyttle]

interesting views as usual..looks like a very manageable mid-winter!

Its manageable on a good day

[David Lyttle]

More views

1 Lake Sylvester

2 Lake Sylvester basin

3. View from Lake Sylvester

4, 5 Lepidothamnus laxifolius This is reputed to be the worlds smallest conifer.

6. Hebe hectorii ssp coarctata

7. Hebe masoniae

8. Kelleria dieffenbachii

9. Celmisia dallii

10 Gentianella sp

[David Lyttle]

Some more plant pictures

1 Gentianella sp

2. Celmisia laricifolia

3. Argyrotegium mackayi

4,5,6 Some more scenic shots showing beech forest at tree line

[ruweiss]

David, thank you for these impressive pictures.
I love these NZ plants, but most of them don't like our climate.
It is nevertheless such a pleasure to visit them virtually.

[Gerdk]

David,
Great pics, as usual. Especially the last ones (4,5,6).
Very cooling when a forecast of more than + 30 ° Celsius was given.

Gerd

[David Lyttle]

Hi Rudi, Gerd.

I am pleased you enjoyed the photos. Winter is not the best for botanising in alpine areas but I saw several plants that were new to me. I would like to go back again in summer. However Nelson is a long way from where I live. The alpine areas of Otago and Nelson have similarities but many of the plants are different. Nelson being further north has a greater diversity of species including some unique endemics such as Clematis marmoraria (which I did not get to see as the site where it grows on Hoary Head is very inaccessible). The specialised plants on the ultramafic rocks were also of interest to me. There are similar ultramafic rocks in the western part of Otago. The Nelson rocks have been displaced by movement along the Alpine Fault but again contain a greater diversity of species than their Otago counterparts.

[cohan]

Hi Rudi, Gerd.

I am pleased you enjoyed the photos. Winter is not the best for botanising in alpine areas but I saw several plants that were new to me. I would like to go back again in summer. However Nelson is a long way from where I live. The alpine areas of Otago and Nelson have similarities but many of the plants are different. Nelson being further north has a greater diversity of species including some unique endemics such as Clematis marmoraria (which I did not get to see as the site where it grows on Hoary Head is very inaccessible). The specialised plants on the ultramafic rocks were also of interest to me. There are similar ultramafic rocks in the western part of Otago. The Nelson rocks have been displaced by movement along the Alpine Fault but again contain a greater diversity of species than their Otago counterparts.

if only we could pop around at will to be in the right places and times for all the plants! i miss some that are just up the road when schedules and weather interfere!
nonetheless, a lot of the plants you show here have great architecture/texture/colours even in the offseason..

[Lesley Cox]

Winter is indeed very manageable Cohan, especially compared with yours. It's our coldest time right now (July) but even yesterday and today, Dunedin recorded only -5 and (here at home) -6C. We've been down to -10 once and -12 once about 15 years ago so by and large, it's not too bad. Already I'm looking at crocus buds and little narcissus et al.

[cohan]

Winter is indeed very manageable Cohan, especially compared with yours. It's our coldest time right now (July) but even yesterday and today, Dunedin recorded only -5 and (here at home) -6C. We've been down to -10 once and -12 once about 15 years ago so by and large, it's not too bad. Already I'm looking at crocus buds and little narcissus et al.

just enough cold to bring out those spring flowers my lilacs are still blooming and muscari just finished...lol

[Lesley Cox]

I expect your winter - or summer for that matter - is more consistent. We get a few days of this or that then a change to something quite different. Hardest frost of the year yesterday, for several years in fact then today we have no frost at all and a light nor'west wind, which is our warm wind. At 7.30am it was quite mild outside and we are expecting a high temp of 13C which is pretty nice for an Otago winter, especially as the sun is shining.

[Rogan]

"Hardest frost of the year yesterday, for several years in fact then today we have no frost at all and a light nor'west wind"

Much the same here: a touch of frost at night and then the most magnificent warm, sunny day. Occasionally a cold front will pass by and give us a day or two of cloudy weather and some drizzle, but then the sunshine returns... Just magic!   

This is typical scenery in these parts at this time of the year: sunny skies, burnt grasslands and flowering aloes:

[David Lyttle]

Rogan ,

Does the burning induce the flowering of the aloes. We do not have anything here that flowers in mid-winter. However today was positively spring-like here with a temperature of 16 degrees C.