A walk in the Silver Peaks

[David Lyttle]

At the end of last week there was an anticyclone parked over the South Island which lasted until Sunday.  Some of my botanical friends an I took advantage of this to go on an overnight tramp to Jubilee Hut in the Silver Peaks just to the north of Dunedin. The area is now a Department of Conservation reserve. In the past it was pastoral land and grazed by sheep. Highest point is 777 metres so it is not really alpine and is lower than the natural treeline in this part of the country. The weather conditions were perfect on the day I went in with not a breath of wind.
1. Green Hill 639 metres The track skirts below it on the right. Vegetation is scrub dominated by Dracophyllum longifolium

2. Looking north towards the coast. Valleys are heavily forested with Kunzea/broadleaf forest. (plenty of wild pigs hiding there)

3. Ridge looking up to Pulpit Rock. Dracophyllum scrub is invading Chionochloa snow tussock grassland. In the past the grassland was maintained for grazing by periodic burning resulting in degradation and loss of fertility.

4. Pulpit Rock Still quite a lot of Chionochloa rigida on the ridge crests.

5. Mt Maungatua.  Forest in the mid distance is exotic Pinus radiata.

6. Looking more or less west along the ridge crests.

7. Highest point in the Silver Peaks (top right) Forest on spur in mid distance is silver beech (Nothofagus menziesii). This is a localised patch called the Painted Forest. It was once good hobbit habitat but is now overun with pigs.

8. View to the north out towards the coast.

9. Blueskin Bay to the north of Dunedin City.

10. View north from Silver Peaks to coastal hills.

[David Lyttle]

Continuing

1. Rock outcrops on the ridges.

2. Valleys an ridges.

3. Saddle Hill from Silver Peaks (home of Lesley).

4. Exotic forest with Mt Maungatua beyond.

5. Looking back along the track from the highest point. The red colour is a red-foliaged form of Dracophyllum longifolium.

6. Mt Cargill which is one of the high points on the skyline seen from Dunedin City.

7. Highest point on the track (777 metres).

8. More ridges and valleys. (at this point I need to get down into the valley on the right.

9. Looking back to Silver Peak No 3 (the one with the trig on) It is 10 metres lower than where I am standing.

10. Looking east to the coast. The Otago Harbour lies between the far distant hill Mt Charles (second bump on the left) and the ridge running from the right with the pylon on it (Mt Cargill)

[David Lyttle]

At this point it is getting on to mid afternoon and I have still got to get down into the valley below to join my friends at the hut. (They had come in the previous day) The descent into the valley is fairly steep via a spur called the Devil's Staircase.

1. Last look a Saddle Hill and the town of Mosgiel.

2. Just below the top.

3. Looking down the Devil's Staircase. Jubilee Hut is on the terrace to the left above the valley.

4. Looking across to the Gap Ridge (Runs to the north from Silver Peak No 3). You can see the steep spurs dropping from the main ridge into the little gullies with their pockets of forest.

5. Rock outcrops photograped on the way down.

6. Well to cut a long story short I made it down to the bottom. At this stage my legs were not working as well as when I started out as it is very steep towards the bottom. Then there was a walk down the valley and a climb up to the hut. It is cruel and painful to have to climb again but my friends boiled the billy and made me a cup of tea. Obligatory photo stop looking back to the Devil's Staircase from just below the hut. The ridge at the head of the valley is the one in photo 4. The track comes down the ridge from the highest point on the far right.

7. View down the valley from the hut. (taken the next morning when the sky was beginning to cloud over)

[Paddy Tobin]

David, What a wonderful place to go for a walk. I can see that the Devil's Staircase could do in the poor legs but I reckon it was all worthwhile.

Paddy

[Gerdk]

Very impressive sights, what a landscape!

- and a question - I do hope not a silly one:

 what's the reason for the olive-green tinted impression of
the vegetation - even on 'Green Hill'?

Very strange for northeners!

Gerd

[David Lyttle]

Paddy,

The first time I did the trip I was about 16 and still at highschool. Two of us came down the Devil's Staircase and built a little bivoauc under the trees by the creek. It was my first independent overnight tramp.

Gerd,

Very much enjoyed your thread on the Forest of Blue Flowers. I can see why our southern vegetation may seem very strange to you. There are multiple colours in our landscape: the straw-yellow of the snow tussock, Dracophyllum and shrubland appears olive green and Silver beech ( Nothofagus menziesii ) is a darker green. The light intensity is very high as the photos were taken on a bright clear day. That would tend to bias the colours as well. Again what the eye sees and the camera see are not always the same so sometimes colours become very subjective.

Here are some more pictures from the trip mainly of fruiting shrubs. The whole area is covered in regenerating shrubland and will eventually become forest if nature is allowed to take its course.

1,2. Gaultheria antipoda white-fruited form.

3,4. Gaultheria antipoda red-fruited form.

5. Coprosma propinqua. This is one of the commonest species of Coprosma and can generally be distinguished from other Coprosmas by its blue fruit and grey bark.

6. Coprosma propinqua. To confound the issue some plants of this species have yellow fruit and/or red bark.

7,8. Coprosma rugosa This species is always very easy to identify with a combination of narrow leaves, red bark and a suckering habit.

9, 10 Coprosma tayloriae Not so easy to identify and some authorities consider it a form of Coprosma dumosa. In this iteration it appears to be reasonably distinct. Usually has white or pink berries but we found this specimen with orange berries.

[Gerdk]

Thank you David!

Besides delighting the eye your pics of fruiting shrubs provoke appetite -
are those berries edible (for humans)?

Gerd

[David Lyttle]

Gerd,

The Coprosma berries are edible and very sweet though the only people who eat them are curious botanists. I am not sure about the Gautheria antipoda; the berries of one species of Gautheria, Gautheria depressa var novae-zelandiae also called snowberry are often eaten. They are pleasant enough but a bit insipid.

More photos

1 Shrub covered with Usnea lichen

2. Usnea lichen close up.

3. Nothofagus menziesii with Phormium tenax and the fern Polystichum vestitum in the foreground.

4. Typical vegetation with Nothofagus, various shrubs Phormium tenax, Chionochloa rigida and bracken.

5. Open flat in creek bottom with Cortaderia richardii in the middle distance and Nothofagus beyond.

6. Vegetation mosaic with the rare shrub Melicytus flexuosus in centre Coprosma tayloriae lower left, Aciphylla scott-thomsonii lower right, Chionochloa conspicua (large tussock centre left) and Dracophyllum longifolium behind. Also present is Polystichum vestitum.

7. Close up of Melicytus flexuosus. This is a very rare plant. It is typically found in frost hollows where the shrubland is open. There are very few records of this plant in east Otago and very few individuals at any locality. This was the only one we found here.

8. Side stream entering at the head of the valley.

9. Climbing back up the Devil's Staircase.

10 Upper part of Devil's Staircase. The top is the high point on the right of the picture

[David Lyttle]

More pictures

1 View from the top, the cloud is begining to come in from the east and creep up the valleys.

2. View to the west where it is still clear.

3. Looking back down the Devil's Staircase.

4. Lycopodium scariosum

5. Lunch stop at the top Saddle Hill is on the left and Mt Maungatua is middle right. Lots of high cirrus cloud denoting a change in the weather. ( and when it arrived it was not good ~ 60 mm rain over one night with surface flooding and slips all over the city)

6. More easterly cloud with Mt Cargill in the distance. At this stage Dunedin was in the cloud.

7. Cloud moving up the valley and on to the ridge.

8. We dropped down off the ridge shortly after and were in the mist until we got back to our vehicles. The photo is of a huge plant of Chionochloa conspicua, I was so large we had to reassure ourslves it was not Cortaderia richardii

[Gerdk]

David,
Thanks for the informations concerning the berries!

Also of course for sharing with us the following outstanding impressions!
- and the Melicytis is terrific.


Gerd

[David Lyttle]

Gerd,

Pleased you liked the Melicytus. There was also quite a lot of Viola filicaulis growing under the beech trees but none in flower. I have an out of focus photograph taken earlier in the year at the start of the Routeburn Track near the Divide which will give you some idea of the plant.

[Gerdk]

David, Thank you once again for showing the violet pic! Never noticed it before.
It seems related to the Australian hederacea group.

Does it experience some frosts in that altitude?

Gerd

[David Lyttle]

Hi Gerd,

You have solved a mystery for me. On a recent visit to Australia I photographed this Viola in Adelaide Botanic Gardens. It seems it is Viola hederacea.

On the other question does Viola filicaulis experience frost in that altitude. Certainly there are heavy frosts in the open but Viola filicaulis is found growing under the cover of beech trees which would shelter it fairly well.

[Hoy]

Thanks David, I have enjoyed that walk in the Silver Peaks

Be glad I wasn't with you! I had been creeping on my knees looking at all those plants - so very different from all things here - we had still not gotten down from the mountain
I had certainly tasted the berries too   -Do you pick the berries to make jam or juice?

[Gerdk]

Hi Gerd,

You have solved a mystery for me. On a recent visit to Australia I photographed this Viola in Adelaide Botanic Gardens. It seems it is Viola hederacea.

On the other question does Viola filicaulis experience frost in that altitude. Certainly there are heavy frosts in the open but Viola filicaulis is found growing under the cover of beech trees which would shelter it fairly well.

David, Thank you for the Viola filicaulis reply!

and - Yes, this is Viola hederacea or Viola banksii - don't know what is valid just now.

Gerd