New Zealand Field Trips September 2011

[David Lyttle]

Here are some scenic pictures from a trip to Mihiwaka (561 metres) above the Otago Harbour. No plants as it is still too early in the season for anything to be flowering.

1. Looking down to Port Chalmers across the Otago Harbour to the Otago Peninsula.

2. Looking towards the head of the Otago Harbour. Dunedin city is out of sight on the far right.

3. Looking across to Mt Cargill (with TV transmission tower), Swampy Summit further to the right.

4. Telephoto shot of Mt Cargill

5. Telephoto shot of Swampy Summit. You can see the Northern motorway out of Dunedin more or less dead centre. Photo also shows huge prehistoric landslide with head wall directly below skyline ridge.. The cracks above where the landslide broke away are still visible so I am told that in geological terms it was a relatively recent event.

6. Looking north west across the Siver Peaks to the Rock and Pillar Range.

7. Telephoto shot of the Rock and Pillar Range still showing winter snow.

8. Telephoto shot looking north to the Kakanui Mountains also covered with winter snow.

[Lesley Cox]

Nice day out David. Looks like there could be more snow up there after thee next day or two. Winter took a long time to arrive and now it doesn't want to let go.

[jandals]

It looks like the Ulex europaeus is flowering well Dave

[Lesley Cox]

Doesn't it always? I have two in a corner of the garden which (I tell myself) I keep because of their magnificent perfume at this time of year but even when we cut them out, we'll always have it here. The woman who "farms"( ) organically at the end of the road, has 100 plus acres of it in full bloom at present and the pods crack open and distribute all around for 100s of metres. I see the council or someone has sprayed the roadsides by her place but only enough to stop the road going totally to the wild.

[David Lyttle]

It looks like the Ulex europaeus is flowering well Dave

Dont get me started Steve; I subconciously avoid placing great swathes of it in my photos. I try and avoid photographing that other environmental weed Pinus radiata as well. The DCC keeps planting the latter into regenerating shrubland ( lots of Coprosma tayloriae, Coprosma decurva and Coprosma dumosa)

[Paddy Tobin]

Wonderful views, David.

Many thanks, Paddy

[David Nicholson]

Beautiful pictures of a beautiful part of the world David.

[jandals]

Oops . Sorry about that . I often get a little excited when I see weeds flowering

[David Lyttle]

Hi Paddy, David,

I am pleased you enjoyed the pictures It was a great day out, however the weather in typical spring fashion has turned cold and wet for the past few days with fresh snow on the hills.

Steve, I will do a thread on environmental weeds at some stage just for you . Our northern hemisphere friends will recognise some of their treasured garden plants.

[Tim Ingram]

Fantastic photos of the landscape in New Zealand. It is difficult to reconcile the individual fascination of plants in our gardens with the potential damage they can do in a different environment - I have just bought a dwarf form of Ulex (gallii 'Mizen Head'), which is very attractive, but the damage that U. europeaus brings to the natural landscape in NZ must be deeply frustrating. Considering the vast number of plants that have been introduced to the UK it is interesting how relatively few have escaped and become severe weeds and some that have naturalised have become beautiful additions to the flora.

[David Lyttle]

Tim,

I attended a lecture last night entitled " Complex relationships with friends and foes: How native plants manage the risks " by a friend who is one of New Zealands foremost ecologists. he told a series of interesting and fascinating stories showing the interdependencies between plants and other biota. It is not surprising that when these relationships are disrupted by human intervention and the introduction of alien species the results can be catastrophic. As an oceanic island New Zealand is a very different place from the UK which more closely resembles continental Europe in its ecology.

[Lesley Cox]

Good Heavens David, I thought you were posting that note this morning, and wondered how on earth Susan's talk could have transmogrified into the one you mention here!

Tim, I believe that our plant police assume that what is a weed in, e.g. the UK, must be a worse weed here. But I saw great (and beautiful) swathes of naturalized Rhodo. ponticum in Wales and Scotland and you're hard put to find it here at all. It is in some gardens and there are plantings of many rhodos in and around Dunedin yet I've never seen a "wild" ponticum among the lot. Perhaps others have seen it naturalizing, but not me. The one that could become a problem for me is R. x Cilpinense which is planted near my seed frames and every year I have hundreds of tiny seedlings appear. I pull them out but always some live to grow on until dug out at a year or two old. One year I potted up a dozen to see how true they came and all did except one which is a deeper, strawberry pink and which I'll take cuttings from this summer.

[Susan]

Yes, you did have me a bit worried David, especially when I read :Complex relationships with friends and foes.

I did wonder if it had been my alter ego speaking!

Susan

[David Lyttle]

Yes, you did have me a bit worried David, especially when I read :Complex relationships with friends and foes.

I did wonder if it had been my alter ego speaking!

Susan

I did the posting on Thursday night after returning from your delightful talk on Wisley and the AGS conference hence last night was Wednesday evening.

On the topic of Rhododendron ponticum it certainly has the potential to be a weed here as well - I removed a huge overgrown patch of it from a property I formerly owned in Leith Valley. There are occasional plants of Rhododendron found growing in the wild round Dunedin. We found one such plant growing on Mihiwaka on our visit there. Spanish heath (Erica lusitanica) has become a widespread weed on the hills round Dunedin with little prospect of being able to control it.

[Lesley Cox]

The heath is well established too, along parts of Saddle Hill Road. I see the DCC men in their wisdom have carefully weedkilled around it in places, and left the heath untouched.