New Zealand field trips Jan 2010.

[Maggi Young]

Super atmospheric  shot, David.

[Armin]

Looks promising for a good night fishing

[Lesley Cox]

Dave,
impressive pictures of the valley and great mountains view.

Was the valley formed by an ancient glacier due to its rounded shape?

I really thought these valleys were formed more recently by the big boots of Dave Toole, tramping up and down.

[David Lyttle]

We spent last Monday afternoon botanising round the headof North Mavora Lake. Here are some pictures of the area

[ranunculus]

That looks incredibly isolated David and amazingly appealing.

[Gerdk]

A wilderness to dream of (in the middle of Europe)!

Gerd

[David Lyttle]

Hi All,

Mavora Lakes are not exactly a wilderness. It is quite a popular camping spot (no facilities apart from toilets). People go fishing there. You are permitted to use power boats on the Northern lake but not on the Southern.  However once you get away from the lakes and the roads  you will not meet many people.

Now for the botanising

1. Aciphylla aff horrida Lomond. Lomond is the tag name for this large Aciphylla which is found on the Remarkables the Eyres and other mountain ranges around Lake Wakatipu. The flowering stem is very stout and massive and the leaf segments are quite wide.

2. Celmisia densiflora. This is a variable  species and can look very different in different localities.

3. Kirkianella novae-zelandiae This a dandelion but is quite rare.

4. Epilobium microphyllum with its striped seed capsules. I am informed that Northern Hemisphere gardeners do not like it very much.

5. Acaena inermis  A nicely coloured form growing amongst the stones.

6. Muehlenbeckia axillaris Also growing amongst the stones on a gravelly lakeside beach.

7,8,9.  The sun orchid, Thelymitra cyanea, showing two different colour forms. It is not completely open as the sun is not out.

10 A rather modest grassland buttercup Ranunculus multiscapus. The black flower stems are characteristic of this species.

[ranunculus]

Lovely images once again David ... are the Thelymitra in cultivation down there?

[Paddy Tobin]

David,

Re posting 63 - the first photograph of Lake Mavora - what are the two trees in the shot? Trees seem to be very scarce in this environment.

Paddy

[David Lyttle]

Cliff,

You cannot buy Thelymitras in the garden shop. I hesitate to say they are not in cultivation as last time I said something was not in cultivation two people made a point of telling me they had it growing in their gardens. I have a couple of plants at the end of my drive but they arrived by themselves. Frequently you never see the flowers as they need warm sunny days to open. However they can be found growing in their thousands in some localities.

Paddy,

The trees are shrubs of Dracophyllum longifolium. If you look in picture 4 of the same post you can see a patch of forest upstream where the valley forks. This is the infamous 'Shirker's Bush" so called because a number of men choose to spend the duration of the first world war there rather than at Gallipoli or in France. The valley floor is well below treeline and there are large tracts of mountain beech forest( Nothofagus solandri var clifffortioides) further down the valley on the lakeshore. Much of the valley is occupied by shrubland (Discaria, Coprosma sp, Olearia sp, Podocarpus hallii) as in the photo showing the large Aciphylla.

[Lesley Cox]

Many of the little native ground orchids sometimes arrive in the garden in commercial potting mix ingredients. Though I don't have either now, both Thelymitra longifolia which is white-flowered and the little green bird orchid Chiloglottis (?cuneata) arrived in different consignments of crushed pine bark fines. A Dunedin friend had Corybas colonise in her garden from a similar purchase. I've also heard of the blue orchids arriving in peat from Southland, but not to me. The Thelymitras, like violas, can produce their seed without flowers opening and even without any sun and pollination, will still make lots of fertile seed, so small as to be almost as fine as talc.

[David Lyttle]

So far this post I have shown only the rats and mice. Our object this trip was to get up into the Eyre Mountains and find some of the rarer, more unusual New Zealand alpines.

The approach was via Gorge Creek seen on picture 1. We left the vehicle where the creek crosses the road and walked up through the gorge hidden by the patch of bush bottom left and gained the spur leading up into the upper basins on Hummock Peak. View is looking directly back down Gorge Creek.

Picture 2 is taken part way up the spur where the vegetation is still dominated by Chionochloa tussocks, Aciphylla aff horrida 'Lomond' and various shrubs. The large hemispherical shrub in the foreground is Hebe propinqua.

A little higher we came into an area of rock bluffs and crags; here the vegetation became a bit more interesting.

3, 4 is Gaultheria crassa which was abundant on the bluffs.

5, 6 is Anemone tenuicaulis also abundant in the damp areas below the bluffs.

7 Kellaria dieffenbachii

8 Anisotome capillifolia (it is not as large as some of the plants I have seen further west but it is relatively abundant on the cooler damper site on the rock bluffs)

9.10 Raoulia buchananii with it red flowers

[ranunculus]

Absolutely stunning cushion Raoulia, David.

[Martinr]

Gaultheria crassa, one to drool over. I want it. I want it.

[Armin]

David,
really fascinating species - thanks for showing us!