New Zealand Alpine Flora

[IMYoung]

Here are some pictures of Myosotis pulvinaris taken on the Old Man Range in December. This a small cushion species that grows on bare, very exposed sites on the crest of the range.
 
Some plants flower so profusely the foliage is entirely hiddden.

A close up shows the detail of the flowers and the hairs on the leaves. Note the anthers are  more or less below the level of the corolla scales in this species.

At the risk of fury from my Dionysia-growing friends I must say that Myosotis pulvinaris seems to me to be just the perfect cushion plant.

[McDonough]

At the risk of fury from my Dionysia-growing friends I must say that Myosotis pulvinaris seems to me to be just the perfect cushion plant.

I can second that motion, except to my eyes, those exquisite M. pulvinaris cushions are more reminiscent of Androsace than Dionysia.

[Booker]

A link that I hope will be of great interest to a number of you:-

New Zealand orchids

http://www.nativeorchids.co.nz/Gallery_LR.html

[IMYoung]

At the risk of fury from my Dionysia-growing friends I must say that Myosotis pulvinaris seems to me to be just the perfect cushion plant.

I can second that motion, except to my eyes, those exquisite M. pulvinaris cushions are more reminiscent of Androsace than Dionysia.

... but the guys who exhibit cushion plants in the UK are most crazy for dionsyias !

[Jandals]

and then you have someone who crossed Myosotis pulvinaris with M.capitata to produce a New Zealand cushion plant with blue flowers . I think she listed it in her catalogue as M. Tiny Tot  but I'm not sure . Might still be around on the Hokonui Alpines website

[IMYoung]

and then you have someone who crossed Myosotis pulvinaris with M.capitata to produce a New Zealand cushion plant with blue flowers . I think she listed it in her catalogue as M. Tiny Tot  but I'm not sure . Might still be around on the Hokonui Alpines website

 Peter and Louise list :

MYOSOTIS Hokonui
This unique plant is a hybrid of our own raising and we are very proud of it. It makes a nice tight cushion with a succession of cool to warm lavender stemless flowers over summer and tolerates frosts and summer heat very well. Sun and a gritty soil. H5cm x W20cm.

photo here:
http://users.actrix.co.nz/hokpines/myohok.jpg

Pretty little thing - but not a patch on the white beauty shown by  David L!

[McDonough]

Maggi, the photo link to Myosotis 'Hokonui' isn't working. I looked high and low for an alternate image, but it appears to have been pulled from the Hokonui Alpines site.

But I did find the following:
Leslie Cox on SRGC reports "Myosotis 'Hokonui,' a hybrid between M. capitata and M. uniflora, a tiny, yellow-flowered bun-like mat."
(not sure about the "yellow-flowered" part, photo shows blue-flowered plant)
http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=6322.msg174665#msg174665

Thumbnail image:
https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSz0dpmy22WgKoykiG0i6FqvjZRxjVpYf9tP9Zx7AgaEagPsyox

[Hoy]

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

[Toole]

Catching up on a some recent outings .
A couple of Scottish visitors stayed with us for a few days and one morning we managed to travel a short distance down to the coast .Here’s Jean focusing in on ……..Gentianella saxosa.

[David L]

Mark,

A few comments on NZ Myosotis - We have a lot of undescribed species especially here in the south where each mountain seems to have a least two undescribed species! Perhaps a slight exaggeration but I could post 6 or 7 undescribed species.
However for those who like yellow Myosotis here are two;

Myosotis brevis a tiny annual species with lemon or white flowers and Myosotis uniflora- here we have a cushion within a cushion ( Raoulia)

[Toole]

Late last week  Steve ,Doug and I searched an area up in the Mt Cook region hoping to locate Ranunculus godleyanus.(Doug has posted a few pics of our trip on the SRGC Forum).

My only experience of this plant is when back in 2008 I managed to flower a purchased plant—if memory serves me right it set good seed which promptly germinated .Unfortunately I never looked after the youngsters and I have only one small plant left although I can't be certain as the foliage doesn't seem quite right…….

My pics are as follows …

View of the Hermitage village and surrounding mountains.

Waterfall draining into the main stream .

Initially travel was easy then the route became very narrow and we had to continually ford the stream and scramble over very wet unstable rock faces.

Eventually our progress was blocked by snow so it was time for a stop to admire the view downstream and plan our next movement….and that was to scoot high up a step side gully . .(At this stage I felt I was on a mountaineering expedition rather than a plant hunting trip !!.).

Higher up we found on a moist rocky site ,Schizeilema haastii.
Steve interested in Brachyglottis haasti .

Having no luck in finding the Ranunculus we gingerly retraced our tracks with Mr Newall reassuring Doug and I that having gone up the gully we would be able to get down .

[Toole]

The day was still young when we reached the car so off we went for a look up the Ball Pass road .You can only get part of the way before washouts make foot travel the only option.
Steve and Doug and view down the valley.
 Raoulia australis in bloom along the way.

Interesting access to gain a view of the Tasman Glacier.

Cheers Dave.

[Booker]

Wonderful stuff, Dave ... I can almost smell the liniment from here!!!  Looks an exhausting, but profitable hike!!  I too have just one small plant of R. godleyanus that I have potted up today. I will compare the foliage to both your images and let you know. R. insignis is in bud at the moment (seven or eight plants), but other buttercups are still resting.
Regards to you all.

[McDonough]

Dave and David, I second Cliff's declaration "wonderful stuff", certainly some rough terrain there, thanks for bringing the experience to us on NARGS Forum. Love the netted leaves on Ranunculus godleyanus.
  
I had no idea that Gentianella saxosa was a coastal plant, growing among sea shells!  Is it always a lowland plant?

Myosotis uniflora is heavenly!  How fascinating, and perhaps vexing too when trying to put names to things, that there are so many undescribed Myosotis species in the NZ mountains.

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.

Stuart Murray has since sent me the image, and I post it here to overcome any difficulties with the link. It's a really nice mat-forming Myosotis.

Myosotis 'Hokonui', courtesy of Stuart Murray:


By the way, check out the 1-page list of New Zealand rock garden plants (many with image links), some very choice items there.
Hokonui Alpines Plant Catalogue
New Zealand Alpines and Rock Garden Plants
http://users.actrix.co.nz/hokpines/catalogue-3.html#1

[Lori S.]

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.

Doesn't work for me either using Safari on a Mac.

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?