New Zealand Field Trips November 2009

[Paddy Tobin]

The Manuka grows perfectly well here with never a sign of black mould; good garden plants here.

Paddy

[Lesley Cox]

Lucky you Paddy. I've cut out a couple recently. Saw a new one in a garden centre the other day and reluctantly left it there, expecting the worst.

[Ewelina Wajgert]

Fabulous photos that you show us in this thread as in precedings.

But I will ask you from my curiosity, do you call on the southern hemisphere this season, that we have now autumn too or spring? I didn't know if I don't make a fool of me, but I shall risk.

[Lesley Cox]

It is now late spring here Ewelina, as it is late autumn in the northern hemisphere. We have Christmas Day in high summer, just 3 or 4 days after the longest day, or summer solstice. Don't feel foolish about asking. We in the SH are used to thinking of the difference all the time because most of the garden books we read mention spring as April, May and we have to think, "oh yes, that's October, November here"

[Ewelina Wajgert]

Thank you Lesley for explanation. In this case it's better to use the names of months.

[David Lyttle]

Here is my promised posting;

First some views of cushion bog and tarns. The cushion plants grow over a deep layer of peat which is soaked with water. The plants are quite firm and you can walk on then.
However the ground quakes when you move over it.

[cohan]

Here is my promised posting;

First some views of cushion bog and tarns. The cushion plants grow over a deep layer of peat which is soaked with water. The plants are quite firm and you can walk on then.
However the ground quakes when you move over it.

stunning landscape!

[Lori S.]

And, I suppose, when you get too far out from the edge, you suddenly break through and fall in up to your hip... ?  The southern hemisphere version of muskeg, I imagine!

[cohan]

And, I suppose, when you get too far out from the edge, you suddenly break through and fall in up to your hip... ?  The southern hemisphere version of muskeg, I imagine!

lol--i was wondering about that too...

[David Lyttle]

And, I suppose, when you get too far out from the edge, you suddenly break through and fall in up to your hip... ?  The southern hemisphere version of muskeg, I imagine!

The cushions are quite firm though I would not like to fall into a tarn. The water is very deep and stained because of the peat. One of the ladies in the party stepped in a soft spot( not on the cushion bog but on a seep further down the hill) and needed assistance to extricate her foot. Not exactly Canadian muskeg (=30% water, 30% vegetation and 30% mosquitoes)

[cohan]

The cushions are quite firm though I would not like to fall into a tarn. The water is very deep and stained because of the peat. One of the ladies in the party stepped in a soft spot( not on the cushion bog but on a seep further down the hill) and needed assistance to extricate her foot. Not exactly Canadian muskeg (=30% water, 30% vegetation and 30% mosquitoes)

at least!!

[David Lyttle]

The cushion bog vegetation is an amazing mixture of vascular plants,mosses and lichens all different colours and textures.

1. General view The shrub in the foreground is Dracophyllum longifolium (Ericaceae formerly Epacridaceae but Epacridaceae is nested within the Ericaceae). The yellow-green shrubs on the other side of the tarn are bog pine (Halocarpus bidwillii). The big green cushions in the foreground are Donatia novae-zelandiae with Dracophyllum prostratum and Pentachondra pumila straggling through them. The white is the lichen Thamnolia vermicularis. The orange cushions are a moss Racomitrium as are some of the light green cushions.

2. A similar view of the same tarn.

3,4,5 An area where the mosses and lichens are overgrowing the vascular cushion plants.

6 The moss Racomitrium

7 Close up of the moss Racomitrium covered with silver hairs. It is growing on a Donatia cushion with a second moss and Gaultheria macrostigma.

8. Pentachodra pumila growing in a Donatia cushion. There are anumber of small plants of Celmisia sessiliflora (grey-green tufts), Gaultheria macrostigma and a small gentian (lower right corner)

9 Another Donatia cushion with Pentachondra pumila. The is a small yellow-green cushion of Phyllachne colensoi growing within the Donatia (left, bottom third)

10 A cushion garden There are five species of vascular plants in the picture.

[Gerdk]

Fascinating pics of a strange part of the world -
are low temperatures all year round the limiting factor for a less stunted flora (besides soil conditions)?

Gerd

[cohan]

such a beautiful flora! the more i see of this, the more i like it....
i guess this is still spring? does it change much in summer--flowers on the cushions, green in the big grass clumps/background shrubs?

[Paddy Tobin]

David,

An amazing place. It reminds me, though far more beautiful, of my neighbour's slurry pit - a swimming pool size pit of liquid manure which develops a crust on which grass and various plants will become established. Dogs can run safely across this but it would be foolhardy of any person to do so.

Paddy