New Zealand field trips Dec 09.

[t00lie]

Of course you aren't Cliff--it was just my lazy way of getting around    to making a greeting to all and sundry.

You are invited this weekend Susan   

 Cheers Dave

[David Lyttle]

Headed down to Invercargill today with the Otago Alpine garden Group to meet up with Dave Toole for a trip to Waituna lagoon wetlands. Dave had sorted out a nice bog for us to visit and arranged weather to suit , rain. When we arrived I tucked my camera down in my jacket and left the tripod in the car. I though the only photography I would be doing would be hand held using flash. We went out and saw plants and more plants most in flower and many very localised and not seen much elsewhere.
Here are a few highlights;
1,2 Oreostylidium subulatum this species has a very sporadic distribution and is found only in bogs.

3,4 Herpolirion novae-zelandiae. The flowers open with a bluish tinge and fade to white.

5 Drosera binata You can see the bifurcated leaves unrolling.

6. Drosera pygmaea This was the smallest species of the three sundews we found. Note the moss growing beside it.

7 The lichen Cladia retipora

8 Gentiana lineata  A curious little gentian that is sporadic in its distribution. The flowers were not out but you can get an idea of what the plant looks like.

9 Utricularia  sp (monanthos) this little bladderwort was growing in profusion mostly in standing water.

After a while the rain stopped and eventually the sun came out. I retrieved the tripod from the car and put it to use. We moved to another site at Tiwai bridge after lunch where we saw more bog plants. (the Drosera pygmaea were at this second site; each Drosera species seemed to have a distinct habitat preference)

[cohan]

what a great batch of plants!

[Ian Y]

Worth getting wet knees for David, great to enjoy your trip through the PC.

Herpolirion novae-zelandiae is a great wee plant, they all are.

[mark smyth]

ooo, lovely Ranunculus. Maybe I'll copy Harold McBride's idea of a making a NZ trough

[Paddy Tobin]

Doug and David,

Great sets of photographs; fantastic plants. Many thanks, Paddy

[kiwi]

On Sat night Dave drove all night from Invercargill. I awoke him in his truck cab early on Sunday morning and together we headed up into the Torlesse Range. Our mission was to find the delicious, moderately rare scree pea, Montigena. We started off pretty rough when Dave led us into the biggest patch of Matagouri in the whole national park!!! After finally crashing through the last of it, our spirits were lifted with a valley full of Bulbinella angustifolia. Heading up into the valley were many nice Hebes and Celmisia angustifolia. We found this nice Myosotis australis and were barely metres away when Dave started jumping for joy. Scree pea, wahoo! After a photo session we dragged ourselves away from the Montigena and promptly found another few plants. A real memorable find. We headed up into the upper slope screes to look for Lobelia roughii, which eluded us on this trip but we did find a lot of Ranunculus haastii, Stellaria roughii and Lignocarpa carnosula.

[kiwi]

The bulbinella Valley.

This morning we went through to the Otaira Valley and were welcomed by the glorious sight of Ranunculus lyallii. There were also orchids and Ourisia flowering everwhere we turned. After a true West coast soaking we headed back to the Canterbury high country for a look for some Penwipers.
Can anyone help with the other Ranunculus ID.

[kiwi]

The Orchid Aporostylis bifolia? A little leptinella atrata, and the stunning but evil Acipylla scott-thomsonii.
A great weekend, fantastic plants and views, and a weeks worth of Matagouri spikes to dig out of my hands, legs etc. Cheers Dave!!!

[kiwi]

David, beautiful plants, look forward to getting down there soon.
The Bladderwort, Herpolirion and Gentian are Divine, stunning colours.
Cheers.

[ranunculus]

Amazing images, Doug ... featuring many of my dream plants (Swainsonia, Lignocarpa, Stellaria, Ranunculus, etc. ... just missing that gorgeous little Lobelia roughii, aaah) and excellent habitat shots as well ... many thanks.  Love the Toolie fashion accessories as well!  

[David Lyttle]

Doug,

So Dave did head north not withstanding the weather forecast though it looks like it caught up with you on the Western side of the Divide! It seems to have been a very profitable expedition finding the Montigena something that I have never seen in the wild let alone in flower.  I am really very envious of your find. I think your buttercup is Ranunculus enysii - it can be quite variable.

Ian,

It was a very enjoyable outing at Waituna. Pity you can't pop over and join us again. However thrashing round a bog in Southland in the rain is not every ones idea of a good time.  Some members of the group got decidedly grumpy. At 9 am that morning I was wondering what possessed me to get up at 5 am and drive down to Invercargill. The camera generally only gets taken out when when the precipitation moderates so people may get the idea we live in Pacific paradise where the sun always shines and rare alpine bloom in profusion. Herpolirion is a great plant - again it one of those things you notice only when it is flower. It is not particularly common and you almost never see it in cultivation but it was abundant at Waituna where it was growing on two out of the three sites we visited.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Love the Toolie fashion accessories as well!  

 
Exactly my thoughts Cliff !



Stunning pictures Doug !!!.... and I'm not just talking about the one featuring Dave... 
Thanks very much for showing !

[t00lie]

a weeks worth of Matagouri spikes to dig out of my hands, legs etc. Cheers Dave!!!

Doug

While there is a saying that with age comes wisdom at my stage of life i'm always on the lookout for a shortcut    --unfortunately it backfired this time  .

My plans to visit a couple of mountain ranges further south on the way home were dashed by a fairly heavy hail storm and a following drop of snow overnight onto the foot hills.
The following shot is of the road conditions --taken from inside the warmth of the truck --i was still in tee-shirt and shorts......

David
I've had a yearning to view the Montigena in the wild for maybe 20 odd years --to actually find it at the first serious attempt was terrific.

Cheers dave

[ranunculus]

Hi Dave,
When did Swainsonia become Montigena?   All my N.Z. reference books still cite Swainsonia.  It remains a gorgeous and highly desirable acquisition.