New Zealand Alpine Flora

[Tim Ingram]

Very interesting list - when Graham Hutchins of County Park Nursery was collecting and distributing NZ plants, this was a wonderful source of plants in the UK and I remember growing a lot of the smaller choice hebes. They are the most intriguing and fascinating plants (all NZers) and the new book that has just been published a 'must have'.

[David L]

Hello Lori,

When I was a student ( some time ago) you could drive to Ball Hut on the road built on lateral moraine that has now collapsed due to the Tasman Glacier retreating. The road was built on the moraine shelf and now the ice has gone (or lowered significantly in parts) the morainic debris just falls down into the void. There is now a big lake at the terminus of the Tasman Glacier and they take tourists out on it in boats. If you are (un)lucky and are close enough you can get a bit of a thrill when the ice collapses into the lake making a big wave. The collapsing moraine is very raw but it is rapidly colonised by a number of plants: nitrogen fixers Coriaria and Carmichaelia. Other species that are common are Muehlenbeckia axillaris, Stellaria gracilenta, Geranium brevicaule, Parahebe decora and various species of Epilobium.

I have located a photo taken in September last year that shows the moraines below the terminal lake of the Mueller Glacier at Mt Cook: it shows a series of moraines of different ages with the successional vegetation. Prominent in the foreground on an old stable moraine  ate Podocarpus nivalis, Griselinia littoralis and Aciphylla aurea.

[cohan]

Mark, Maggi's link works perfect for me and has done so all the time.

Didn't work for me, but I subtracted the picture info and just went to the homepage- interesting site- I was esp interested to see they offer seeds, though currently the list is offline for updating..
http://users.actrix.co.nz/hokpines/

[Toole]

Dave and David, I second Cliff's declaration "wonderful stuff"
  
I had no idea that Gentianella saxosa was a coastal plant, growing among sea shells!  Is it always a lowland plant

Thanks Mark and Cliff.

Yes G.saxosa is a lowland plant found around the southern coastal regions and i believe on Stewart Island .Habitat can be just above the high tide mark to sand dunes and rocky places.

Wonderful scenes and plants!  Thank you for posting!  Those glacial lateral moraines look pretty recent (at least in geological terms)... was there much plant life growing there?

Thanks Lori

David Lyttle has mentioned colonisers --others are the Raoulia's and in the Epilobium genus E.melanocaulon is prolific.I've sometimes thought that in it's best forms it might warrant cultivation in a pot with careful attention to removing seed heads. .I'd certainly not risk it in the garden proper here.

Travel up towards the Ball Pass area is what i call interesting as on your right side is the lateral moraine, however on your left side .close to hand ,is a steep mountain range from where frequent avalanches sweep down and across the defunct road and sometimes up the lower part of the moraine wall.

In fact last week the 3 of us were discussing the differences in the colour of the rock .Hopefully the following pic will show what i mean.

Cheers Dave.

[Hoy]

Trond, the image link to Myosotis 'Hokonui' still doesn't work here, tried it on two computers, in both Firefox 9.x and Internet Explorer 9.x, gives error: "Not Found,  the requested URL /hokpines/myohok.jpg was not found on this server".  I suspect the image was removed but that your browser might have it cached. If others in North America can try the original link above and let us know if it works or not, I would appreciate it.

Mark, you probably are right! I still have it on my computer but can't open it on others.

Dave & David, both plants and places are lovely!

[cohan]

Some great and interesting landscapes and plants, guys!
David L- all the Myosotis shown are lovely- the little annual is quite appealing, even if it needs macro to be so!
Dave- the Brachyglottis seems to have very nice foliage...

[David L]

Have just finished catalouging several batches of pictures.  Here is a bit of a random selection mainly from the St Marys Range in North Otago.

The first is Kelleria villosa var villosa showing the plant and a close up view of the flowers and foliage.





Pimelea oreophila subsp lepta which is  commonly found in the eastern tussock grasslands of the South Island.



Pimelea notia a recently described species. differs from the preceeding in that the leaves are sparsely hairy





Raoulia tenuicaulis a mat forming daisy very common on gravel riverbeds - here it is growing on a road margin.



One of my most recent preoccupations has been trying to figure out various Celmisia species. Here is Celmisia angustifolia which can sometimes be confused with Celmisia brevifolia.



It can also be confused with Celmisia densifolia so here are the two growing together. (Celmisia densifolia is top specimen note broader leaves)



Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium with Gaultheria crassa growing in front. The tussock is the narrow-leaved snow tussock Chionocloa rigida with a patch of the clubmoss Lycopodium fastigiatum in the left foreground.



A flowering plant of Gaultheria crassa.

[IMYoung]

David L, for those unfamiliar with these plants, might it not be useful to include something to give an idea of scale in the photos, or descriptions ? 

[David L]

David L, for those unfamiliar with these plants, might it not be useful to include something to give an idea of scale in the photos, or descriptions ? 

Yes, the Kelleria Pimelea and Raoulia pictures are = or > life size.

[cohan]

Especially interesting to see the groupings of various plants growing together..

[RickR]

Yes, I too especially like the multiple plant photos, and it's a treat having more than just the "main attraction" identified!

In that last pic, it looks as though the Gaultheria produces a dry compartmentalizes fruit, rather than a berry?

[Booker]

Brilliant images, David.  Many thanks for posting.

[David L]

Cohan,
Very happy to show the plant goupings to give ecological context to the different species.

Rick,
NZ Gaultherias have diverse fruits; the fruit is a capsule ( dry in the case of G. crassa) or may  surrounded by an enlarged fleshy calyx ( G. depressa var novae-zelandiae - the snowberry which is edible) Pernettya was originally distinguished from Gaultheria by the fruit being baccate (according to the glossary this has a fleshy mesocarp) Pernettya is now included in Gaultheria ( Pernettya macrostigma = Gaultheria marostigma) as bigeneric hybrids between various species are common so the fruit characteristics were not a particularly good character to divide the species into different genera.

Cliff,
I hope the S.P.A.T consortium treats you gently when you visit and you are able to see the plants in the field for yourself!

To continue on the Ericaceae theme here is a picture of Leucopogon fraseri which acommon widespread plant but very difficult to get the detail in the flower.



Next Myrsine nummularia with its very small flowers It has an attractive blue berry



Nertera scapanioides (or I think it is this species rather than the more common Nertera depressa)





Anisotome aromatica - there are innumerable forms of this species



A small cress Cardamine bilobata



Growing on the same outcrop two small ferns Grammitis poepiggiana and a Hymenophyllum I have not been able to identify.



Coriaria plumosa which is a primary coloniser and nitrogen fixer (symbiont is Frankia rather than Rhizobium)



In the beech forest at lower altitudes the mistletoe Peraxilla tetrapetala was flowering profusely. Thie species is very sensitive to possum browsing and was almost wiped out until the pests were brought under control by the Department of Conservation. In both cases the plants are growing on mountain beech Nothofagus solandri var cliffortioides but we also found plants growing on two alternative hosts, Coprosme propinqua and Aristotelia fruticosa.

[Hoy]

David, I never tire of admiring the flora of NZ! Interesting ferns too (any chance of spores?) and an extraordinary mistletoe!

[RickR]

Thanks for answering my query in detail, David.  I ate it up.
Interesting how a genus can encompass both fleshy fruit and dry capsules, isn't it, Mark...

I marvel when I look at so many genera I am familiar with in my region, only to find so much more diversity in the same genera in other places.  So often I say to myself, I never would have guessed it belonged to such and such genus...