New Zealand Alpine Flora

[Toole]

A few images from last weekends trip to Mt Cook on the main divide.

Traveling up with fellow forumist Steve our first stop was near Trotters Gorge to view Celmisia hookeri,a spectacular lowland sps that grows on lime stone bluffs seemingly liking cool positions.

Gingerly working our way through dense gorse and pines we managed to find a number of plants .

Flowering plants of the common tree daisy Olearia arborescens were thereabouts as well and in pockets of native bush the blooms of Clematis paniculata were seen ,wondering at height through a number of shrubs.

Heading inland Steve showed me a spot where another Clematis sps was flowering --Clematis afoliata a leafless sps.

Then it was onto our accommodation at Ferintosh ,Lake Pukaki to meet up with the others .

[Toole]

Saturday it was overcast at Ferintosh but became wet as we made our way further into the mountains.

A couple of shots of Aciphylla aurea ,(and Gaultheria crassa),in the Hooker Valley before we retreated.

It was drier in the nearby Tasman Valley after lunch and almost immediately as we pulled up in the vehicle  Pimelea prostrata was sighted.The braided river bed is home also to 4 different Raoulia sps and Myosotis uniflora.

 

[Toole]

Traveling further up the Valley we decided to climb to the lookout over the Tasman Glacier Lake .

View looking downstream.

Steve with his videocam --our two American visitors --Kirk and Thomas.

Finally on the way home Steve and i stopped at a Reserve where Pimelea pulvinaris resides and as per normal ,(at least for me),our timing was just a little way off as all the flowers on the sunny side of the cushion were well past their best.

Raoulia apicinigra was more accommodating however. Edit--Now seperated out as R.beauverdii

Doug Logan another member of our group has posted some wonderful pics of other plants seen during the weekend .
Details are below.
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9753.msg260022#new

Cheers Dave.

[cohan]

A fantastic set of plants, as usual! The Celmisia hookeri has awesome foliage! Olearia arborescens is interesting too- how tree-like does it get?

[Toole]

Thanks Cohan
The Olearia can reach 3 to 4 metres in height.Tough as old boots .

Yip Celmisia hookeri would do well in my shady lowland garden i think ---might have to look out for some seed later on in my travels.

I understand the Raoulia i posted above as R.apicinigra has now been seperated out as R.beauverdii so i'll make an edit above .

Just about to wake the Americans who stayed here overnight--hopefully the weather will hold so we can head down to the coastal bogs before they head across into Fiordland this arvo..

Cheers dave.

[cohan]

The tall Olearias must be very cool!
I forgot to ask- what is painting the slopes yellow in the first photo of this set?

[Toole]

Gorse ,(Ulex europaeus ), a spine bearing, nitrogen fixing bush.--an introduced ,terrible weed here .  

Cheers Dave.

[cohan]

 

[RickR]

Wow, that gorse really is terribly invasive.  It seems to have really taken over.  Do people even try to curb its appetite at all?

Love the landscape shots even more.  They really give a feel for the area. 

Clematis afoliata, is sure an odd one, especially since I noticed a "tendril" at the lower left of the closer, second photo.  A clematis with tedrils?  Well, a web searched revealed that the species has "Lvs reduced to petioles and petiolules", so that's explainable.  Also interesting is that the species has unisexual flowers, but apparently(?) it is not dioecious.  I could only see male flowers in the pic...
Would anyone like to shed some clarification here?  Are there other clematis species like this?

[Hoy]

Very interesting Dave, as always though! If you ever manage saving enough Celmisia hookeri seed, please .......
The Olearia is also an interesting gardenworthy plant. It's a pity all the nice plants are so hard to come by here in Norway!

Was the gorse introduced as a useful agricultural plant or is it just a garden escape?

Rick, according to Christopher Grey-Wilson (Clematis the genus) Clematis afoliata is unique although seedlings do have small ordinary laves the first years. It seems that all species in section Novae-Zeelandiae are dioecious. There are a couple other similar but a little leafier species in the same section NZ: C. marata, quadribracteolata; and the very leafy C. forsteri. The beautiful C. paniculata is in the same section.

[Toole]

Wow, that gorse really is terribly invasive.  It seems to have really taken over.  Do people even try to curb its appetite at all?

Very interesting Dave, as always though! If you ever manage saving enough Celmisia hookeri seed, please .......
The Olearia is also an interesting gardenworthy plant. It's a pity all the nice plants are so hard to come by here in Norway!

Was the gorse introduced as a useful agricultural plant or is it just a garden escape?

Hello Rick/Hoy

Yes there is control taken.

Each Regional council is responsible for administering a Regional Pest Management Strategy under the Biosecurity Act and enforcing the rules pertaining to this . I'm not sure of the rules surrounding gorse ,either boundary clearance or total control.

It is seen as having some value --pollen for bees , stabilising eroding ground, fixing nitrogen in the soil and providing a nursery bed for regenerating native forests,(the shade of which eventually kills the gorse--still a real hassle though when i go pig hunting with my brother --the gorse while dead ,takes a long time to collapse to the ground so it's matter of bashing through wearing protective clothing and a good pair of gloves).

Guess this is a reminder of what can happen when a foreigner is introduced ,(originally as a hedging plant),into a favourable climate where there are a lack of biological predators.

Cheers Dave.

 
 

[Jandals]

Went back to the Mt.Cook area last weekend to look at some upcoming work and managed to sneak off for the morning and revisit the areas from our previous trip 2 weeks earlier . I was particularly interested in finding flowers on Celmisia bellidioides ( which had been in bud ) and also having another look for Dave's hybrid ( Ranunculus tooliei )

I would appreciate any feedback on placing names on the pictures . I hope it doesn't clutter anything . Firstly , some Anisotomes from "Anisotome Valley "







The one and only flower that was open on the C.bellidioides , so I guess early December probably a better time for pictures



The new bridge across the Hooker River is nearly finished



The view from inside Stocking Creek shelter



Lots of Mt.Cook lilies were flowering . Actually thousands were but tens of thousands were not which is probably why we cannot find Dave's hybrid again . It's resting and waiting for its turn again





Mt.Sefton



Even the Pittosporums are divaricating shrubs here



(Moderator:  added plant names for forum searches; Anisotome haastii, Anisotome pilifera, Gingidia montana, Celmisia bellidioides, Ranunculus lyallii, Gaultheria crassa, Pittosporum anomalum)

[Howey]

Dave - interesting to read of the  problems you are having with gorse in New Zealand.  It has also been introduced to Vancouver Island, BC and is a terrible pest there too - in fact I hear groups of local volunteers periodically take forays out to try to get rid of it - hmm.  Guess, as you point out, there is a good side to it - attracts bees and helps prevent soil erosion.  Think we used to call it Broom and I thought it originated in the British Isles (Scotland)?  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[Howey]

Jandals - Didn't know a plant, which is not normally divericate, could become so.  At the Dunedin Botanic Garden, there is a Divericate border which highlights naturally divericate plants.  If a Pittasporum can become divericate, would that be caused by a "spartan" diet or something special either present or lacking in the soil.  Just wondering.  Fran

Frances Howey
London, Ontario, Canada
Zone 5b

[Tim Ingram]

Steve - I don't think I can imagine a more beautiful plant than that Ranunculus! And the view from the mountain cabin...

I've just been reading about Capt. Cook's voyages to the southern seas and get some idea of what it must have been like to first see some of those landscapes and plants. Different when you live there I suppose...