NZ Field Trips 2009

[t00lie]

David Lyttle (aka Mountain Goat --Maggi please note....), and i have spent the last two days out and about up high.
Some nice plants and wildlife seen.
Only one pic for the time being--This fella ,(or gal), rested just long enough for a picture before hopping away.

Cheers dave.

[t00lie]

Rightio just a couple more.

Ranunculus pachyrrhizus showing the variation at differing periods of maturity.

Cheers dave.

[Maggi Young]

Ooh! Not only Mr Buttercup will be pleased by these Ranunculus pix, Dave .....they're yummy.... great to see such detail.

[David Lyttle]

Pleased to see Dave has made it safely home - he probably got back before me.
For all his overseas fans here is a picture of the man above the Nevis valley on the southern end of the Hector Mountains.  Ian Y will be familiar with the spot as he was there last year. This year we had more clement weather and time to go exploring.

Next the view looking south down the Mataura Valley where the main highway from Lumsden to Queenstown goes.

Picture 3 is looking west to the Upper Mataura into the heart of the Eyre Mountains home of many famous plants.

Picture 4 is looking down into the Nevis Valley. Again Ian Y will be familiar with this particular valley having driven through it last year.

Picture 5 is a real violet Viola cunninghamii ( for Gerd)

Picture 6 is a Celmisia hybrid. The parents of this plant are Celmisia sessiliflora and Celmisia lyallii both of which were growing near by. We recorded 15 species of Celmisia at this locality;  C alpina, C. brevifolia, C. densiflora, C. gracilenta,  C. haastii, C. hectori,  C. laricifolia, C. lyallii, C. prorepens,  C. ramulosa, C. semicordata var stricta, C. sessiliflora,  C. verbascifolia,  C. viscosa, C. walkeri.  There may have been another two species present but we did not get a good look at them.

Picture 7 is Celmisia prorepens. This species and Celmisia densiflora are very similar and where the two occur together they hybridise giving a range of intermediate forms.. Celmisia densiflora has white tomentum on the undersurface of its leaves; Celmisia prorepens does not.

Picture 8 is Celmisia viscosa

Picture 9 is Aciphylla scott-thomsonii always a stunning plant with its architextural form and yellow infloresence.

Picture 10 is a unidentified species of Myosotis growing in a wind scoop. It is not Myosotis pulvinaris but may be Myosotis cheesemanii or something close to it.

[David Lyttle]

Ooh! they're yummy.... great to see such detail.

You mean the grasshoppers don't you Maggi, there is more sustenance in them than a buttercup!

[Maggi Young]

It IS a nice bug, David, but protein isn't everything in a balanced diet, y'know!


Ian is coming over all nostalgic for his trips with you Guys! What great good fortune he had to be shown these places with you.... though the weather was rather dodgy when you all stayed the Nevis Hilton, I think !

Is the name Celmisia x linearis a valid one for that beautiful hybrid?  Suberb foliage plant, isn't it?
That whole area is some sort of daisy heaven, I reckon.

[Gerdk]

Dave,
Thank you so much - at least the first pic (for me) of this rare violet in its natural
environment.  Does ist experience very low temps (with snow cover) in winter?
Is it growing in a wet or in a dry region?

Gerd

[Senecio 2]

Celmisia x linearis is not just a foliage plant Maggie. This pic taken 5th November

[Maggi Young]

How lovely, Stuart..... I just meant that EVEN OUT of flower, it looked great... even better with those daisies, though! 

[Ross Graham]

Great photos
That unidentified Myosotis looks quite intersting the flowers are very much like cheesmanii but the leaves look a bit different not so glaucous. cheesmanii always grows in the lee of big rocks in quite gravelly exposed soil. Where did this plant grow? It looks like there has a bit of vegetation surrounding it? I reckon if someone studied Myosotis in NZ carefully they could come up with lots of new species but all quite close to each other.

That's a great photo of C. linearis in cultivation. I don't think linearis is a proper name really but its quite useful.

Iv seen Viola cunninghamii at 2000m on the Remarkables Range so I expect it gets pretty cold I think it was in a snow bank though so probably gets protected from snow over the winter. Although of course frosts occur at any time at that height.

Our baby daughter Chihiro Aimee was born on the 27 December so the only mountains Iv been climbing recently have been a mountain of nappies. Looking forward to the seed season though.

[Lesley Cox]

Congratulations Ross and to your lovely lady whose name - forgive me - I have forgotten. I guess this little one will grow up not only bilingual but with an overwhelming interest in all things alpine. Perhaps she could be encouraged to seek out Japanese hepaticas, irises, primulas, hostas for us, and Dicentra peregrina of course.

[t00lie]

Gerd
Here is another close up of the Viola taken on Sunday.
It has a wide range throughout most of NZ .

Prefers moist soil and while it will be under snow in the wild it grows easily in the garden here with no winter protection.It grows so well that i have to make sure i make an effort at deadheading to reduce the number of seedlings appearing.
A small tufted plant that is said to have along flowering season although in my experience if it gets too dry ,this is not so.

Stuart
Nice to finally see a Celmisia  x linearis in flower.
I have been visiting the particular plant that David L posted for the past 4 years and never seen it in bloom.(I believe this one is a hybrid between C.sessiliflora and C. lyallii).

Maggi
Daisy heaven indeed.There are at least 4 different hybrids that i know of as well as an interesting large leafed/flower form of C.hectorii that we didn't sight as 'mountain goat' was keen to visit his beloved,(wink), wetland bogs on the other side of the ridge.

Hello Ross
my congratulations on the addition to the family.

Cheers dave.

[Maggi Young]

I think, from various researches, that Celmisia x linearis is an accepted name.

Many congratulations to Ross and his lady wife on the arrival of the charmingly named Chihiro Aimee, which sounds so pretty and feminine, as I am sure the youngster will turn out to be.... even if she does whizz up mountains in a few years time !

T00lie, did you have a nice birthday?  Scottie and I raised a toast to you.... in tea and cake, of course!

[t00lie]

Maggi/Scottie
Thanks for the toast.

As i was out in the field it was very low key---not even a piece of birthday cake.

If the weather is okay in the next day or so i plan to head up into Northern Fiordland botanizing again and as
there is a planned delayed celebration this Sunday ,now that a couple of the family have recovered from a continued bout of stomach upsets over the xmas/new year period, i'm looking forward to that.

Cheers dave.

 

[Maggi Young]

a couple of the family have recovered from a continued bout of stomach upsets

glad to hear the bugs are over.... here in the UK it seemsto have been horrible coughs and flu-like bugs which were laying so many folks low.

there is a planned delayed celebration this Sunday

Excellent....... we'll raise another toast then!