New Zealand Alpine Flora

Lori wrote:

  For our hikes here, even though we usually pick fair weather and go out in shorts and T-shirts, we have never regretted carrying packs filled with all-weather gear (rain jacket, fleece jacket, insulated pants, gloves, warm hat, light wind pants and jacket) - we quite often use it all!  ;D 

Lori - This is exactly what we do in NZ
Cohan - Thanks for the climate info . The problem with NZ plants in most of the USA is the double hit of extreme cold and extreme heat ( and humidity ) . Plants that could take the heat can't take the heat and vice versa . The West coast is an obvious exception . If your summers are not too hot then it may be possible to grow some interesting stuff like Ranunculus crithmifolius , R.haastii and R.piliferus ( in order below ) outside . Maybe some covering of the dormant plant might help . I will try to find seed for you and Lori as it would be very interesting to see how you get on .

Thanks, Steve- any of those would be interesting to try. Heat really is no big issue here- even on the (usually very few) days when we hit 30C, it's only for a couple of hours in the afternoon..
That's a distant memory at this time of year, of course...lol

The Southern Rata ,Metrosideros umbellata ,is in full bloom currently here on the coast ,(you can see the wind shear in the first pic).

Another Metrosideros, M.excelsia grows in the North island and is commonly known as the 'NZ Christmas tree'.

I think that 'title' could easily apply to our local species as well.

Cheers Dave. 

Traveled up country to join members of the Otago Alpine Garden Club ,fellow forumist Steve and Harry Jans and his wife Hannie.
(Harry is out in NZ speaking at the NZAGS Discussion weekend in 6 days).

I headed up on Friday and decided to visit Northern Southland for a look around before meeting up with the others in Fiordland at night.

Masses of Craspedia uniflora ,(woollyheads), were in bloom.

Melicytus alpinus ,(porcupine shrub) on a rock.

A small very hairy Myosotis sps growing out in the open .( Not sure where it ‘sits’ in the new publication "Above The Treeline").

Pentachondra pumila in fruit ,creeping around.

In a bog ,Gentianella amabilis .

One of the locals sun bathing.

The ever reliable Celmisia densiflora in flower.

Unfortunately I had a little hiccup coming down the hill and came off the bike in loose gravel so yesterday I was unable to climb right to the saddle with the others and to be honest my mind wasn't really on plants  .... so just a couple of pics .

Gentainella divisa .
Fiordland.

Hopefully Steve will post some of the goodies i missed.

Cheers Dave.
 

Sorry to hear about the spill, Dave :(
Some great plants there- awesome foliage/form. Esp love the Melicytus- very cool looking! and great leaves on the Myosotis..

I looked at Melicytus a bit on google, not enough apparently- I didn't get the connection to violets! That being said, if its hard to germinate, maybe GA3?

We will look after them Cliff . Just tried ringing Dave but couldn't contact him . Last I heard he was on the improve and should be right for this weekend . I am going to miss Harry's opening lecture tomorrow night but I saw it on his computer and it was very impressive . I'm going to post the Gertrude Saddle pictures now and Mt.Burns tomorrow .

Morning tea break part way up the hill . Dave did very well to make it this far but had to turn back from here

Ranunculus sericophyllus

Ranunculus buchananii x sericophyllus . I have seen the lemon coloured version before but this is the first cream coloured hybrid I have seen

Celmisia bonplandii

Celmisia hectori

Celmisia verbascifolia

Harry Jans

Raoulia grandiflora growing in R.buchananii

Celmisia durietzii

Aciphylla congesta

Aciphylla multisecta

Dolichoglottis lyalli x scorzonerioides

Polystichum cystotegia

Body is still a bit sore --bad  burn on the inside of the right calf where my leg lay against the motorbike's exhaust ,(I was wearing shorts  :-[)--some damage to the inside of the left knee that was trapped under the bike.
Slowly coming right.Thanks for asking.

Mark -- NZ Gentian were reclassified as Gentianella.I'm not sure when.

As an aside I'll show a photo or two of the new alpine book 'Above the Tree Line ' which has just been published when i get time next week --it's a beauty   :-* ,as I'm away early tomorrow to travel all day up to Christchurch to attend the NZAGS Discussion Weekend.

Hoy ,Cohan I have a friend registering on the Forum in the next day or two.
He has successfully raised Melicytus from seed ,(I've never bothered ), so he will be able to answer your questions.
He also gets around in the hills down here so hopefully he'll show pics as well. :D

Now just going to view Steve's photo's and see what i missed  :'( :'( :'(

Cheers Dave.

Steve- great stuff- love the two Raoulias- such awesome foliage- how big would that view be?
Cool to see the fern standing proudly in the sun too.

Dave- good to hear you are getting better...

Book arrived today Cliff . Thanks heaps . Yours is in the return post .
Sunday was a trip up Mt.Burns in beautiful weather . I think all of New Zealand has been enjoying sunny , settled weather for a week now . In fact the Southland Times had a front page headline about the 7 days ( at least ) of fine weather forecast so everyone has been getting a little excited . I reckon it's all down to Murphy's Law - school goes back and the sun comes out .

Celmisia holosericea

Celmisia coriacea

Drosera arcturi

Leucogenes grandiceps

Dolichoglottis lyalli x scorzonerioides

Aciphylla pinnatifida

Aciphylla crosby-smithii . Although it is a good flowering year for all the Aciphylla species I've seen , we only saw 2 plants of this species flowering

Hebe hectori

Hi Cohan - as you have correctly guessed the Raoulia grandiflora is on a small plant . Leaves are about half and inch across .

The last pictures are the buttercups , which were the main reason for going to Mt.Burns and the timing was perfect

Ranunculus lyallii

and Ranunculus buchananii

Thanks, Steve.
More great foliage- C coriacea is interesting- is it as stiff as it looks?

Hoy wrote:

I have tried to sow the shrubby violet Melicytus twice but never achieved germination. Any advice?

Dave Toole requested that I answer this question so I have just gone through the process of signing up to this forum. Melicytus alpinus is quite a complex entity comprising up to about 20 different forms All forms can be grown from cuttings or from seed. However seed takes a year to germinate, (virtually to the day!) For anyone who is interested here is a link to a presentation on some of the work done by myself and my colleagues from the University of Otago on the Melicytus alpinus complex given at the Southern Connections Confernce here in Dunedin last week. It may be too much information for some!

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/79474488/Orlovich_Southern_Radiations_NEW.pptx

(Moderator: to help gauge download time, the PPTX file is 30.7 MB in size)

Magical pictures! There just has to be a Natural History programme made about these plants sometime. I wonder how many gardeners have any idea how beautiful these mountain buttercups are?

Thanks Cliff, I have several hundred photos taken over the past couple of months to catalogue before I consider posting  but in the meantime Steve and Dave seem to be doing an admirable job showing the NZ flora on the forum.

Hello Mark, Thanks for the welcome; I will try an experimental posting.

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.

Another NZ native with awesome foliage!

Hello Cliff,

As one of the 68 photographers who contributed to the book I am pleased you liked it. It was certainly a dedicated effort fom Alan and from Jane Conner the publishing editor as well as many other people who assisted in the production of the book. There are a few errors as would be expected in a project of this size and complexity.  Poor Doug has become Dave Logan so I hope he can reclaim his name at some stage.

The aim of the book was to update Mark and Adams New Zealand Alpine Plants. This has been done with the text more or less following rhe original but including chapters on lichens (David Galloway), birds (Rod Morris), fungi (David Orlovich), invertebrates (Brian Patrick), mosses (John Steel) and lizards (Mandy Tocher). The aim of the book is to be comprehensive with respect to the vascular plants that grow above the treeline. It excludes taxa that have not been formally described and a few others that seem to have fallen off the list.

I am interested to see what the response to the book will be and am awaiting publication of the reviews: Alan has been interviewed by the Otago Daily Times and by National Radio
http://www.odt.co.nz/lifestyle/magazine/244398/elevating-alpine http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ninetonoon/20130207

I consider the book is a very reasonable price too ,at NZ $49.95 and as this thread has been viewed just over 10,000 times....Hope the publishers have a few copies available .
;D ;)

Welcome to the Forum Mr Lyttle.

Cheers Dave.

Hoy wrote:

Another NZ native with awesome folios ;)

lol

Seems like a great book- I could only wish for something similar locally!

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

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.

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)

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 . :-\