NZ Field trips - November

[kiwi]

Lesley, like Steve, I too run a twin six pack, but we both managed to walk 13 hours solid on Saturday.

Steve, I bow down to your Pimelea sericeovillosa subsp. pulvinaris, I saw none as good as that one!!!
Good work on the hybrid guys.

On the way home I dropped in on legendary alpine grower 'Margret Pringle'.
She always has some interesting things growing in her garden.
Collections of Carmichaelia, Astelia, Dracophyllum and Clematis species.
Flowering at the moment....
Celmisia hookeri.
Dracophyllum recurvum.
Bulbinella angustifolia.
Hebe ochracea 'James Stirling'

[t00lie]

Looks like you all had a good trip - I was meant to be at Lake Roe this past week (in place of Mr Newall) but the weather decided it was not to be!

The Tasman Myosotis uniflora is very white compared with the golden-flowered plants on Pisa flats.

In some ways I'm pleased to hear you didn't go David --While i was driving up with Steve Friday lunch time i remarked i wouldn't liked to have been in Fiordland.

I'm not sure whether the yellow of the Myosotis uniflora flowers fade as a result of the blooms going over or when they are fertilised ?.....

Dave managed to call in a couple of keas . I think the male kea must have recognised Dave as a possible threat and did the swoopy swoopy thing over his head .

Yeah both birds swooped aggressively and screeched numerous times-- first time I've had that happen ....

The gang ---from left Steve, Hugh, Doug and Robbie and you can just make out the point of interest,(the Keas), to the left of Steve .

Bird with a view.

Shot taken from the Sealy Tarns of the Hooker Valley and Aorangi ,(Mt Cook), and our tramp in the afternoon .We travelled over the Hooker River (marked with a cross on the right of the pic), around behind ,then on top of the eroded ridge ,(marked with a star on the left of the pic) and searched for Ranunculus godleyanus ,(without success ),near the thin snow patches ,(just above the marked star).

The view from that side with Doug on the eroded ridge looking down into terminal of the Mueller Glacier...

Some more birds --a pair of Paradise ducks.

A local ....

More to come

Cheers Dave

 

[t00lie]

Having some difficulty with my pics ....

It's sorted now so i'll carry on .

   Aw thats right     there were a few plants   ......Here are some of the smaller beauties althought Doug I'm tempted to show my Pimelea pulvinaris inferioranus as well, but i'll go easy on you bud.... ..

A couple of Raoulia shots .

The tight buds ,(not yet open),of Leptinella squalida creeping along gravel where there's little competition.

Also thereabouts is Muehlenbeckia axillaris --and close up.

Finally -Kelleria dieffenbachii

Cheers Dave.

[David Lyttle]

Nice to see both the Tarras and Tekapo plants of Pimelea sericovillosa subsp pulvinaris.

I went to Akatore Creek on Saturday. Akatore is south of Dunedin and there is a little scrap of forest on a very steep scarp wher the creek enters the sea. There is a wonderful collection of divaricating shrubs on the edge of the estaury ie several Coprosmas including Coprosma obconica, Melicope simplex, Raukaua anomalus, Melicytus flexuosus Helichrysum lanceolatum, Myrsine divaricata to name a few. There are a number of uncommon plants on the coast where it is quite exposed including Myosotis pygamea and Lepidium tenuicaule. Not as spectacular as the alpine herbfields but interesting none the less.

1. Looking seawards with flowering Cordyline australis

2.Akatore forest remnant. Farmland comes down to the edge of the scarp on right of picture.

Some shore plants

3. Apium prostratum (same species as  I posted on the October thread growing inland at Alexandra)

4. Crassula moschata (This is a particularly healthy specimen as it is growing just below a gull's nest)

5, 6 Disphyma australe This grows in very exposed situations just above high tide mark.

7. Shore cress Lepidium tenuicaule - related to Lepidium oleraceum

8 Leptinella dioica, very common in coastal turfs.

9 Myosotis pygamea a small annual forget-me not (similar to inland Myosotis brevis also in the October thread) The plant beside it is Colobanthus muelleri

10. The find of the day Pimelea prostrata subsp. prostrata. These coastal Pimeleas are difficult to identify and the recent revision the genus has not exactly clarified the situation. The plant was growing on an exposed rock outcrop that would have been an island at high tide.

[David Lyttle]

Dave,

I am happy I was not in Fiordland this past week as well. Eroded ridge = bloody big glacial moraine ie pile of stones dropped by melting glacier! Exciting places with large boulders tumbling down the sides on to the unwary.

I messed up my last posting

1. Lepidium tenuicaule

2. For Cliff, Ranunculus acaulis (small but perfectly formed)

3. A small greenhood orchid Pterostylis sp (not from Akatore)

4 Studio shot of flower of Melicytus flexuosus (cultivated plant ex Wainakaurua)

[Lesley Cox]

TWINS Doug! Golly!

Great shots boys. Keep up the good work. Hope the summer provides lots of opportunities for similar trips. Thanks for the plants and the pictures.

[ranunculus]

Many thanks lads ... especially for the lovely little R. acaulis.

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Stunning pictures everyone !!  Superb !
Thanks for showing !

[ichristie]

Thank you gents for the superb pictures such great adventures you have, how do you manage? do you ever get any work done? and does your wives throw you out at weekends? probably like mine glad to get some peace when you are away, cheers Ian the Christie kind.

[Lvandelft]

Every time I see these superb pictures of the N.Z. Flora I get even more impressed by the great diversity.
And of course by these great landscapes. Thanks for showing!

[Julia]

Fantastic pic's, takes for sharing them with us, in this cold and wet Scotland !

[kiwi]

A few shots I missed from last weekend at Mt Cook...
Lycopodium Species ( I think Australianum but possibly fastigatum?) Very unusual but delicious.
Gingidium montanum
Celmisia semicordata - stunning even without flowers.

We arrived at the first bridge to these signs and were gutted. Dave gazed across the lake then went down to the men at work and explained that if we couldn't cross we were going to swim across the glacier river mouth. Lucky for us they they were not in the mood to resuscitate 5 men, and let us pass over.
Good on ya Dave.

[Lesley Cox]

Julia, I have just taken note of your Avatar picture. Is it a partially erected tent or is it a truly, fabulously, stunningly magnificent plant of Rheum nobile? If the latter, can you show the plant somewhere where it can be enlarged please? (the picture I mean; to enlarge the plant would make a tree of it!)

[ranunculus]

Julia, I have just taken note of your Avatar picture. Is it a partially erected tent or is it a truly, fabulously, stunningly magnificent plant of Rheum nobile? If the latter, can you show the plant somewhere where it can be enlarged please? (the picture I mean; to enlarge the plant would make a tree of it!)

Lesley, had you considered the possibility that Julia is only eighteen inches tall?

[Lesley Cox]

Well yes, this is possible of course but I'm sure Maggi would have mentioned it somewhere. Previous pictures of Julia suggest she is almost as high as a truly, fabulously, stunningly magnificent plant of Rheum nobile, or even of a a partially erected tent.