New Zealand Field Trips April 2007

[t00lie]

Still having trouble--Here goes....

[David Lyttle]

Hi Dave

Its not dry here today. We have had southerly squalls and hail all day and it is very cold which is probably the reason why you are indoors posting photos on the internet.

I am fairly certain your hebe is Hebe murrellii.  A diagnostic character is that the anthers are held well outside the corolla tube which is certainly the case for your specimen.

[t00lie]

Thanks for the id David.

Hebe murrellii is a new name to me.The plant stood out because it was the only one in the area blooming and upon closer inspection of the flowers prior to taking the pic i realized it was a species i had never seen before.

Cheers Dave. 

[David Lyttle]

Today I went for a quiet Sunday afternoon stroll up on Swampy Spur just north of Dunedin . The prime purpose of the excursion was to collect propagating material from the rare shrub Melicytus alpinus for a conservation project. The track leaves the road at Leith Saddle where the main highway north crosses it and climbs up through podocarp forest.  This gives way to forest dominated by mountain cedar (Libocedrus bidwillii) which in turn gives way to scrub dominated by Dracophyllum longifolium and mountain flax (Phormiun cookianum) befor opening out into mixed tussock shrubland. We reached a height of just over 650 metres where most of the photos were taken.

First picture shows southerly storm clouds blowing over the crest of the ridge. Needless to say it was a bit on the chilly side.

Picture 2 shows a general view of the bog that was our destination. There is a belt of Hebe odora round the perimeter. The recently described shrub Coprosma elatiriodes was common there as well as a variety of other coprosma species, with Coprosma rugosa being particularly prominent.

By some miracle we found the Melicytus flexuosus. In all we found three plants. It is outnumbered 10 to 1 by Melicytus alpinus. Until fairly recently I would have walked right past Melicytus flexuosus and not differentiated it from Melicytus alpinus but they are very distinct plants and easy to tell apart once you have your eye in. Not withstanding there has been an enormous amount of taxonomic confusion with specimens in herbaria labelled with all sorts of names.

Picture 3 is Melicytus flexuosus. Characteristic features are the relatively slender interlaced branches often entirely devoid of leaves. The leaves when they do develop tend to be narrower than those of Melicytus alpinus. The shrub is taller growing and more upright than Melicytus alpinus.

A bonus was finding a fruiting plant shown in picture 4.

Picture 5 is a view to the north towards the Horse Range on the horizon. It is an eastward extension of the Kakanui Range which I showed on my last posting.

Picture 6 is looking northeast to the coast showing the prominent inlet Blueskin Bay with the Waitati Valley leading down to it from the right.

Picture 7 is a bed of the fern Blechnum capense ( or whatever other name the taxonomists call it these days) with mountain flax Phormiun cookianum in the background.

Picture 8 is a nice shrub of Dracphyllum longifolium growing beside the track.

Picture 9 is a fruiting specimen of Astelia fragrans growing back down in the forest.

Picture 10 is a group of puffballs growing in the forest

[shelagh]

Hi there, I'm sorry I have only just come across this posting and was interested to see Melycitus alpina with what appear to be bi-coloured fruits.  We grow and show this plant, it's in full flower at the moment but the fruits we get are plain white.  Do you get variation out in the wild or not?

Shelagh

[David Lyttle]

Hi Shelagh,

Melicytus alpinus itself is an extemely variable plant. The bi-coloured purple blotched  fruit however are fairly typical. The extent of pigmentatation may depend to some degree on the amount of sunlight the developing fruit receives.  As the berries are usually tucked in beneath the branches often the would get very little direct sunlight and would remain unpigmented.  No sunlight = no pigmentation would be my guess.  Melicytus alpinus is rarely cultivated in New Zealand. I would be interested to see pictures of your plants.

[shelagh]

Hi David,

Well that really is a challenge.  We have only one plant, which has now progressed over 10+ years to an 8 inch pot.  In response to your request I have taken some pictures but as yet I have never succeeded in posting a picture to the forum, my files are always too big. So if someone has an idiot proof way of doing it I will certainly try.  When I looked at it closely I could see that I was about a week out of date, all the flowers are still there but everyone seems to have set fruit so it looks as if it could look good for the the Ponteland Show in the autumn.

[Maggi Young]

shelagh, have a look at the various bits of advice given in the General Admin section, re trouble with posting and you should find some help there for your picture resizing. We use ACDSee and I resize to about 650 pixels by 500 pixels  and this usually gives me a file which uploads without trouble., but I am not expert on these matters!
Good luck! M

[shelagh]

O K Maggi, here goes.

Melycitus alpina

Shelagh

[shelagh]

Only managed one out of four must try harder.

Shelagh

[shelagh]

Sorry about this!

Shelagh

[shelagh]

This really is the last one.  I can't stand the stress of it all.  I may have to retire to a darkened room with a large G & T.

Shelagh

[Maggi Young]

See, Shelagh, I knew you could do it! To make multiple pic posts in one "go", click the "more attachments" button after the Additional options, as many times as you have pix and then you can upload up to ten.
It just takes a few goes to get the hang of it ! Hope you are sharing the G&T with Brian!
Cheers,
M

[ranunculus]

We are all proud of you here in East Lancs Shelagh....now we also have a group Chairman who can post multiple pictures!  See you tomorrow evening at our Mini-Show/Social evening (Everybody welcome).
The quiz has been prepared and the G & T's are on order at the bar....

[Maggi Young]

sounds like a fun evening, Cliff, sorry we can't all join you! Have fun, though!