New Zealand Alpine Flora

[Weiser]

Dave
As always a wonderful presentation of plants I have long wished to see. I always look forward to your postings.

[Tim Ingram]

Oh! I have only just found this thread from the beginning and what wonderful photographs and scenery - especially the umbellifers (!) and maybe even a ranunculus or two! I was brought up on Philipson and Hearn's book and have always longed to see the alpines of New Zealand. Some occur in Tasmania, which I have visited, but the landscape is so completely different. Alan Furness in Northumberland grows many of them beautifully but they are not really for us down in the south. Many thanks again.

[Toole]

Pleased you are enjoying the postings John and Tim.
Philipson and Hearns publication is a beauty --although somewhat surpassed in terms of plant names i often pick it up ,(again), during the winter as it is such a good read.

On the edge of moist areas ,orange coloured growths of Hebe sps.

In the cushion fields .....
Raoulia hectorii var mollis, Chionohebe densiflora, woolly Craspedia lanata , Chionohebe thomsonii and Abrotanella inconspicua .

[Toole]

Near rocky bluffs Aciphylla simplex and ground hugging Ranunculus pachyrrhizus close to snow melt.

I wasn’t alone---,( Mr),   Kea decided to investigate my pack – very sociable ,intelligent and inquisitive birds I kept a close eye on him,(or her), as they are infamous for opening zips and emptying contents .I managed to get within a couple of feet  before it was distracted by another bird flying above us.(Look how he has his head bent to view the competition).

Finally ,the climax !!    --on exposed sites, numerous plants of the stunning, grey silky haired Myosotis pulvinaris so well blended into the surrounding rock that I almost stepped over them.

Cheers Dave.

[Doreen]

Wow, Dave, your pics are super, thanks for posting the pictures, especially the Myosotis pulvinaris, it's magnificent. First saw it in flower across in the Dunstan Mts a couple of years ago when I was out with John Douglas from Alexandra, going up to the M. albosericea site. Have you ever got any seed of pulvinaris and tried it in the garden?

Are there REALLY so many lowlife riff-raff up there on the ridge that you need to padlock and chain your bike (it doesn't look that busy from your pics?) 

[Booker]

Magnificent as always, Dave.

[Hoy]

Thank you for a nice evening, Dave

[Toole]

Thanks Cliff and Hoy.

Wow, Dave, your pics are super, thanks for posting the pictures, especially the Myosotis pulvinaris, it's magnificent. First saw it in flower across in the Dunstan Mts a couple of years ago when I was out with John Douglas from Alexandra, going up to the M. albosericea site. Have you ever got any seed of pulvinaris and tried it in the garden?

Are there REALLY so many lowlife riff-raff up there on the ridge that you need to padlock and chain your bike (it doesn't look that busy from your pics?)  

Nope i haven't tried the Myosotis myself or collected seed Doreen....I understand it or variants grow well in the northern hemisphere --in fact i saw a really nice healthy specimen in Davie Sharps alpine house while we were in Scotland last year.

The bike isn't registered,warrented or insured so I'm always keen to make sure it doesn't go missing .--I even have it chained to the truck body when travelling..........

Technically i guess I'm braking the law because some of the 4 wheel roads i travel on are classed as public roads---aw well-- i like living on the edge !

Cheers Dave.

[Doreen]

The bike isn't registered,warrented or insured so I'm always keen to make sure it doesn't go missing .--I even have it chained to the truck body when travelling..........

Ah, that explains it, it's not that you're worried about the lowlife nicking it, it's to stop Mr Plod impounding it! Anyway, thanks to your "living on the edge" we get to see all these plants we'd never get to see otherwise (unless we called on Davie Sharpe!) 

[Toole]

I haven't been out in the 'hills' for a few weeks however i plan to remedy that this long weekend ---(Monday is a public holiday---'Waitangi Day commemorates a significant day in the history of New Zealand. It is a public holiday held each year on 6 February to celebrate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi, New Zealand's founding document, on that date in 1840.')

In the meantime here are a few shots i took a week or two ago while visiting a botanical garden of one of the native Metsiderosis sps flowering.

Cheers Dave.

[Hoy]

Looks much better than the grey, naked birches here

[Toole]

Looks much better than the grey, naked birches here

Here's a few pics to cheer up your day Hoy. Wink

Part 1 of 5  

Spent Monday of last week and then yesterday in the mountains of Northern Southland.After the last two magnificent blooming years a number of genera are having a 'rest'.  

My first visit was to West Dome ,a peak reaching about 1200 mtrs in height .

On the lower access 4 wheeled vehicular road ,an Acaena hybrid between A. novae Zelandiae and some other local species, possibly A. inermis.

I was able to ride up to the edge of an area which a few of us call the 'Moonscape' ,an area of ultrabasic rock seemingly devoid of any vegetation.I hesitate to use the word "ride" as the climb was via a very rough mountain goat sort of track and i came off the bike 3 times going up and once decending   (However that's another story perhaps..).

Plants do survive in this exposed spot including a nice yellow/green coloured form of Gentianella bellidifolia,(i was just a little early for flowering ).At first glance i thought it was a small seedling of Aciphylla aurea.

A Myosotis sps which i think is still unnamed --it has a number of unofficial titles such as M.sps 'Dome' or M.sps 'Mossburn' after the area in which it is found .In any case its very hairy foliage can range from green to grey.

Also there a prostrate creeping Kelleria sps ,and flowering,silver growths of Raoulia hookerii and one of the 'woolly heads' ,Craspedia uniflora .

Rest to follow when time allows.

Cheers Dave
 

[Toole]

Part 2.

Celmisia spedenii is endemic to this area .Although I found a small plant in flower you would grow it for the foliage alone. .No yellow flowers this time around !.

The new growths of Hebe lycopodioides give it an orange tinge .
( oops --Edit -- This should be H. hectorii ssp demissa).

Almost appearing suspended above moss the heads of Brachyglottis bellidioides --while it's just a little yellow daisy, the best leafed forms are highly desirable.    

One of the harebells .Wahlenbergia albomarginata is wide spread, here growing in amongst one of the smaller snow tussocks.

In wet depressions, Celmisia glandulosa and also in moister spots but in more depleted spots a nicely coloured Euphrasia sps , maybe E. integrifolia   .(I didn't have a hand lens available and was running out of time to switch over to a macro lense to try and aid the ID) .

Celmisia densiflora , one of the sticky leaf sps is a reliable bloomer and didn't disappoint as a number were showing colour -- makes impressive loose patches.

[Toole]

Final pics from West Dome.

A creeping snowberry ,Gaultheria depressa var novae zelandiae with Celmisa densiflora in the background.

Around these rocks on shaded crevices ,unexpectantly i found the South Island edelweiss, Leucogenes grandiceps.

Cheers Dave .

[Toole]

Rightio yesterdays adventure was to the Te Anau basin where a well groomed road leds up onto Mt Prospect a low ridge at about 900 mtrs.

It's an interesting area in that the northern slopes are covered with beech forest while the southern end is tussock grassland.

Along the road large mats of Raoulia glabra were flowering.Has quite a wide distribution as it is found near the coast not far from where i reside.

Also in close proximity a couple of bidibidis, the diminative Acaena inermis and A.caesiiglauca.

On over hangs the colourful Lycopodium fastigiatum.

In amongst the snow grass and wiry growths of a Coprosma sps, Gentianella montana with its very dark red underleaf and in this case 3 prominent veins.