New Zealand field trips Jan 2010.

[cohan]

i remember the stellaria and notothlaspi from last year, love those two! among my favourite plants!
great that you can take your daughter--must be hard at some moments to choose whether to photograph her or the plants! hopefully time for both

[Ross Graham]

Hi Doug,
Very interesting photos of Mt Srokes. I can see Celmisia hieracifolia(the rusty coloured one) and C. rutlandii (the larger green one with rolled up leaves at the bottom. Did you see C macmahonii var macmahonii? When I visited 5 or so years ago I could not find it but maybe I did not look hard enough. Its only found on Mt Stokes as far as I know. Its a strange mountain because it only just pokes up high enough to get above tree line. All the alpines there may dissappear with global warming, if tree line gets any higher. The other threat I noticed was goats which seemed to be doing very well. There was a fence but it had fallen down and was useless at the time I visited. Its great to know that there are still plenty of alpines up there 5 years latter.

Nice to see your daughter likes the mountains, my daughter is 1 now and I hope to take her into the hills at some stage. She loves our garden and made appreciative nioses when I showed her a Mt cook Lily flowering. Hopfully I can take her up a mountain in the car if the weather gets better some day.
Ross

[ranunculus]

Hi Doug,
Nice to see your daughter likes the mountains, my daughter is 1 now and I hope to take her into the hills at some stage. She loves our garden and made appreciative nioses when I showed her a Mt cook Lily flowering.
Ross

Hi Ross,
You should hear the noises I make when I see one flowering!!!   

[Ross Graham]

Hi Cliff,
shes a good daughter, she chuckles and points at things in the garden, shes much more appreciative than my wife  
I will try and show you a pic of the plant when it was flowering at its best a month or so back. Its all gone to seed now.

Ranunculus lyallii

[ranunculus]

I'm making the noises Ross!   

[t00lie]

Hopfully I can take her up a mountain in the car if the wether gets better some day.
Ross

I wouldn't hurry Ross
This is what i found up country yesterday .Quite surprised how much snow there is about  ---however the ridge i was on was clear and there were a number of 'weeds'   flowering ----as for Fiordland --well i've been waiting 3 weeks for a visit --when i drive to town most days i get a glimpse of their southern slopes --still heavy white stuff laying there even before this latest drop.

Brr !!.

Windswept beech.

Cheers Dave

[Ross Graham]

Hi Dave,
Yeah its pretty bad all right I saw a tornado when I was parked on the main street in Dunedin (it looked like it was  over the sea) I got up Mcphees rock on the southern end of the Rock and Pillars before all this stuff came through.

a photo of tornado (?) in Dunedin 8 January
Some photos I took recently (technically from the 28th dec so should be in Dec field trips but I usually round up)

Dracophyllum uniflorum var. frondosum growing on the side of the Old Dunsten road on the way to Mcphees Rock

Celmisia sessiliflora Mcphees Rock

Celmisia argentea flowering sporadically this year

Aciphylla hectorii flowering well this year.

Aciphylla glaucescens growing on the side of the road South of Mossburn its flowering like crazy this year

Im still getting used to this camera so the photos are not that flash

[Lesley Cox]

Not a tornado, just a really nasty but short, sharp hail storm. I was at a meeting in Ironic cafe by the railway station when it hit. The noise on the iron roof was astounding and the hail stones bouncing a metre into the air but it only lasted 10 mins then just regular rain. Still raining today (Sunday evening) and I'm loving every drop.

[kiwi]

Hi everyone. Dave, bummer about the conditions, don't worry Mt Arthur will warm you up next week.

Ross, the Mt Stokes Celmisia macmahonii is a mystery to me as I haven't any photos or drawings to id it from. I have a hundred photos from the day, ( every Celmisia that looked different) Do you or anyone else have a picture they could post? As for the fenced area up there - still pretty rough but it had kept the wild pigs from rooting up the area unlike the rest of the back faces. As far as the kids go, how could they not appreciate nature when our passion for plants rubs off on them everyday!

[Ross Graham]

Hi Doug,
there is a pic here:
http://www.nzpcn.org.nz/flora_details.asp?ID=9
It actually has some good info on the plant too. They say that the plant numbers are stable and that goats are being controlled also that specilist growers have the plant so hopefully it wont go extinct soon. Macmahonii hadfiedii which is more common looks a lot like a lighter coloured more fluffy phillocremna and grows as slowly as phillocremna but is easier.

Leslie: if you look at the top pic you can see what I was talking about: a dark extension from the bottom of the cloud base. It was tubular and moved from right to left before disappearing. If it was over the sea I guess it would be called a water spout and I couldnt tell if it reached the ground or whatever but it looked very like a tornado to me. I took 3 photos none very good granted but I know what I saw. Tornadoes do occur in NZ but usually not as destructive as in the USA and they usually occur in that kind of weather: thunder, hail etc.

[Maggi Young]

Guys, I believe the Celmisia is correctly named C. macmahonii.... no "h" after the first "c".... I have edited the posts accordingly. 

[Ross Graham]

Sorry Mr Macmahon
I have always thought that it was an impoverished mind that can find only one way to spell a word. I should try harder though when peoples names are involved. 

[Maggi Young]

A little eccentricity is a wonderful thing, Ross, but it is not much use for folk searching a plant if the name is incorrect..... our search engine cannot cope with permutations!

[Lesley Cox]

Ross, I wasn't doubting you, it certainly looks like a waterspout and they are known to occur in Otago caostal waters. I was jsut saying that by the time it reached the city it has lessened somewhat. The hail was pretty impressive though but no so bad as Invercargill's that day, when it truly looked like a good snowfall.

Did you ever see the waterspout drawing in one of Arthur Ransopme's books, could have been "Missee Lee," when the ship and all aboard her were caught and tossed in the air? Though just a kid's drawing, it showed very graphically what happens in such an event.

[Ross Graham]

Leslie: yeah it just seemed to go along the coast (probably over the sea) and only lasted briefly. I only mentioned it because I thought it was pretty cool and we were talking about how bad the weather was. I think its the best kind of tornado: one thats far away and does no damage. I had always wanted to see one and I never thought I would see one sitting in my car on the main street in Dunedin. Arthur Ransome is that swallowdale and cootclub etc I loved those books when I was a kid I wonder if I could persuade Chihiro to read them when she is older? They were kind of old fashioned even when I was young but great stories.
Yeah search engines are kinda weak that way. The human brain can recognise a word if only the first and last letter is spelt correctly.