Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
General Subjects => Alpines => Topic started by: Maggi Young on December 16, 2008, 11:27:10 AM
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As you may know from the New Zealand Field Trips December 2008 thread (http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=2785.0), Swedish Forumist Johan Nilson is over in NZ at the moment and is being greatly assisted in his travels to view as many of the wonderful alpine plants that country has to offer as he possibly can, by various kind NZAGS/SRGC members, such as Kim Roberts (recently registered for the Forum - what kept you, Kim?!!).
Kim has sent over these photos , taken by another alpinist chum, Stuart Murray, of Johan and his girlfriend, Lina, struggling across the very steep slopes of Mt. Hutt, to photograph some large specimens of Raoulia eximia ....
...as ever, click the pix to enlarge them....
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Super pictures and plants! I visited the same place.
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My goodness, the raoulia is extraordinary.
Great pictures. Paddy
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Extraordinay place, extraordinary plants, Paddy!
Kind of Kim and Stuart to send these over for us. 8)
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Beautiful pictures. What an outstanding place to botanise.
The last picture let arise the question if Johan stayed overnight between these enormous grey/white cushions.
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They were not camping on Mt Hutt, Luit.... but they bought a tent and have been travelling with that........ I'd rather nip back to Kim's place, I reckon!!
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It was just the way how his girlfriend was walking away after pict. 8,
let me think like I did.. ;D ;D ;)
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You can easily see how these amazing plants came to be called vegetable sheep. More than one high country farmer in the old days was known to send his dogs out around them to round them up at the fall muster.
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Oh dear... I am struggling to stop myself from sheep jokes at NZers expense!! ;D Don't be cruel to me like this. ;)
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awesome !!!!
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I think there must be a picture missing - the one where they lose their footing and roll to the bottom :D
It looks steep but stable. If there is the slightest movement you would not catch me anywhere near, even though the reward of capturing these incredible plants in close-up is tempting.
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This particular place is quite stable Art and in any case there are grass tussocks to grab and pull oneself up by.
Paul, behave yourself!
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Aw, but Mum!! ;)
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Hi everyone!
After a couple of weeks in Indonesia before returning back to Sweden and smaller problems with Internet connections, I'm finely back here at the forum. I have had a fantastic trip with six weeks in New Zealand and about three weeks in the northern parts of Sumatra.
It feels great to be welcomed back to find a thread here devoted to me and my trip. Thanks you Maggi for that and thanks to Stuart for those excellent pictures. Especially I want to thank Kim Robert. Not just for sending Maggi the pictures, but especially for her great hospitality and for bringing us up to Mt Hutt that day.
And of course thanks to you all for your comments ;).
It was just great to see these great cushions of Raoulia eximia out there. And of course being the first time for me, I just had to see it from all possible angles, and Yes my camera was quite warm at that point as well.
So here comes a couple of pictures, starting from that day at Mt hutt.
First Gaultheria crassa
2. Raoulia eximia.
3. Ranunculus sp. Please give me sugestions.
4. Luzula sp?
5. Leptinella pyrethrifolia?
6 & 7. Phyllachne colensoi
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Here is some more pictures from Mt Hutt.
The NZ-flora is all new to me so there is probebly a lot of wrong named pictures :-\. So please corect me as much as posible :).
First Kim Roberts & Stuart Murray.
2. Raulia grandiflora
3. Must be a Raulia, But wich one?
4. Celmisia sp.
5. Haastia?
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Lvandelft,
I probably would have stayed the night if I could have! :P
and Lina never did leave me up there, even though she probably wanted to ;)
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Hi Johan, Nice photos
To help you with the ids, here are my opinions:
The Ranunculus is insignis growing up through Celmisia angustifolia
insignis on Mt Hutt grows much thicker leaves that are smaller than the ones further north in wetter places (see David Lyttles photos from Mt Arthur) These differences persist in cultivation.
The Raoulia looks like mamillaris
The Celmisia species looks like a hybrid possibly between angustifolia and lyallii
The Haastia is a very ancient Roulia eximia
Its raining over the whole South island so being on this forum is my only way to see the mountains at the moment.
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and Lina never did leave me up there, even though she probably wanted to
;D ;D
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Hi Ross,
Its really great that we can be at the mountains as much as we want to, through the forum. Thank you for helping me getting the names right.
To me the "ancient Roulia eximia" really looked different to the other R. eximia. It would be great if anyone could post a picture of Haastia pulvinaris. I have only seen the illustrations from 'Mark & Adams'.
I found it very interesting that there seems to be quite a lot of different Celmisia hybrids and even other hybrids to be found at your mountains.
Some more pictures from Mt Hutt
Neopaxia sp?
Helichrysum intermedium?
..and from Arthurs pass
Raoulia australis
Caladenia sp
Ourisia sp
Raoulia grandiflora from Arthurs pass, It is interesting to see how one species can differ from one place to another.
Raoulia grandiflora from
And last what I think is Celmisia petriei
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Stunning pictures Johan ! :o
What a magical trip you must have made !! 8)
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Hi Johan,
Thanks for the new pictures they are really great as well. I have never been on the Tongarero crossing so you are one up on me! I was just saying to my wife we should do that some day.
The Celmisia from Arthurs Pass is armstongii which looks very much like petreii the only difference being the location and the fact that petreii is all green above, while armstongii has a more orange look especially the yellow/orange midrift. Petreii grows furthur south on the mountains in the west Mt aspiring and Fiordland and Westland.
The Ourisia is probably macrocarpa (its hard to tell from a photo.)
you can see some pics of Haastia on my website:
http://alpine-plants-new-zealand.110mb.com/haastia.htm
I did a page on Hasstia a while ago.
Its still raining here, last time I checked the rain guage was up to 63mm and that was 20 hours ago and its rained quite a bit since then. Hopefully I will be off to the hills tuesday.
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Great photographs, Johan.
Paddy
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thanks for some more great armchair --err--computer chair!--travel!
so many amazing plants in the world!
cohan
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Hi Johan,
It is nice to see your pictures from your New Zealand trip posted on the site. By coincidence I am trying to write an article on our trip to the St Marys Range for the Botanical Society of Otago newsletter and trying to get my head round some of the plants we saw. At the moment I have been looking at the little cushion Myosotis you spotted and comparing it to Myosotis pulvinaris and another small Myosotis I found further south in the Hector Mountains. Another plant I am trying to place in some sort of taxonomic perspective is the Celmisia we saw there. I should post a picture and let Ross have a crack at it. It is still raining here and I dont think he will be getting to the mountains any time soon.
kind regards,
David
Celmisia sp aff durieztii ?
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Hi David,
I have just got back from the mountains and saw this post. I got away on the tuesday. I got 120 mm rain in total for my garden actually my rain guage might be leaking as it has a crack from when water in it froze last year so it may have been more! Will try and post some pics of my trip if I have time. Spent a couple of days with Steve Newall which is the first time Iv been in the hills with him for 5 years or so.
I think your Celmisia is something new I think aff duretseii is as good a name as any. I cant say its any particular species. I guess you would have to compare it against herbarium specimans to get any better idea.