NZ Field trips - October

[kiwi]

Spent an interesting weekend up on Mount Sommers, hunting the great Ranunculus crithmifolius.
Arrived at the hut on Saturday evening which sleeps 26, to find out 42 other people had the same idea.
It was going to be a rough night on the hut floor. To make things even more interesting, a cheeky Kea decided to rip open my pack drag every thing out, clothes, toiletries, etc and my sleeping bag which it managed to drag down into the creek and rip a nice fist size hole in it! My son was really happy to share his bag on the cold wooden floor! At least we came prepared with heaps of clothes.
Here's some shots of our weekend.

 

[kiwi]

Some more....

[kiwi]

A few more of Mount Sommers, and a photo stop on the way home - a landscape of Rapeseed. (Canola)
Cheers,
Doug.

[Anthony Darby]

Not been to the South Island or done much tramping, but my son is going to the pinnacles hut on the Coromandel peninsula in December as an introduction to the Duke of Edinburgh bronze award. I hope they book the hut, and he'd better look after my sleeping bag?!! Mount Somers looks fascinating. I like that buttercup (Ranunculus crithmifolius)!

[Hoy]

Some day I have to take a trip to NZ just to look at that flower
Industrious birds you have down there

[ranunculus]

You know my opinion of those magnificent buttercups, Doug?
SO many thanks for posting them.

[Anthony Darby]

Some day I have to take a trip to NZ just to look at that flower
Industrious birds you have down there

You must come and visit. I'm sure you'd be made very welcome. These keas have an aura about them!

[ruweiss]

Doug,
thanks a lot for sending us such a fine article with these
beautiful pictures.

[Lesley Cox]

Obviously a good year for that buttercup Doug. It's ALWAYS a great year for keas.

[jandals]

Nice pics Doug and  the good weather at Labour Weekend was a bonus . It's always fun having the kids on an outing and I bet he will remember the kea and the sleeping bag story for many years to come .
I was a nervous wreck on Sunday night but calmed down a bit now

[David Lyttle]

Very envious of your photos of Ranunculus crithmifolius Doug - I have never seen it flowering.

I went for a quick trip up to Central Otago last Friday to photograph Myosotis uniflora a rare yellow-flowered forget-me-not. On the way we made a quock visit to the Chapman Road Scientific Reserve near Alexandra. It is very similar to the Springvale Reserve that I posted in an earlier thread, It has saline soils and is very dry. In the intervening five weeks the spring annuals have finished flowering and are setting seed and are now drying off.

1. Myosurus minimus var novae zelandiae (mousetail) pretty much at the end of its growth cycle.

2. Myosotis brevis still flowering.

3. Atriplex buchananii coming into growth. This plant is a halophyte and is also found on the coaston headlands exposed to salt spray.

4. Another halophyte Apium prostratum - more commonly found on the coast where it is very common.

5. Raoulia beauverdii This is a plant I have known about bur naver recognised until now.

6. Raoulia beauverdii showing the flowers.

7. Acaena buchananii green form.

8. Acaena buchananii bronze form (similar to Acaena buchananii var picta which is in cultivation).

9. The flowers of Melicytus alpinus with developing fruit.

[David Lyttle]

We continued further on up the road to our ultimate destination Pisa Flats. Ther is a scientific reserve on some stony terraces above the Clutha River that is now surrounded by vineyards and lifestyle blocks. The ground is verydry and bare of large vegetation. There are a number of cushion plantsand small herbs present most of which are now very rare. Myosotis uniflora was in full flower - there were a large number of plants on the site more than we had expected to see. It is a stunning yellow-flowered cushion forget-me-notwith a similer growth form to Myosotis pulvinaris, It is a plant of stony riverbeds and river flats.

1. Myosotis uniflora cushion
 
2. Myosotis uniflora flowers.

3. An un-named Craspedia growing on a cushion of Raoulis austalis.

4. A small cushion of Colobanthus brevisepalus growing with Myosotis uniflora and Leucopogon fraseri.

5. Leucopgon fraseri Here it is forming a cushion - it is usually much larger.

6. Raoulia apicinigra

7. Raoulia spicinigra showing closeup of flowers.

8. Vittadinia australis. There is an introduced Australian one as well but it has purple flowers and is more common than the native species which has white flowers.

9. Galium  ' Clutha ' A tiny Galium growing in a cushion of Raoulis australis. Galium perpusillum is another small species that grows in alpine bogs.

10, Raoulia australis - the most common Raoulia in these dry areas. The flowers are not quite open.

[David Lyttle]

Here is the final plant. Lepidium solandri (Matau cress). This species is critically endangered with fewer than 1000 plants known in the wild.

1. Growth form

2. Plant with infloresence just about to open. In fact there are a couple of flowers that have already opened.

3. A quartz pebble covered in lichens.

[ranunculus]

Superb images once again, David.

[Stephenb]

Excellent pictures , David!

Being mostly interested in wild edibles, can you tell me what the difference is between Apium filiforme and prostrata? I understand that the Maori didn't use wild celery, but Captain Cook did.

The Lepidium reminds me that I tried to get hold of seed of native Lepidium oleraceum (Cook's Scurvy Grass) a few years ago. Do you know of a source?