New Zealand field trips October 2008

[David Lyttle]

This thread could be titled " Hunting for Tree Violets". Today I headed out to Cape Saunders on the Otago Peninsula to look for an unnamed species of Melicytus. I hoped to find it in flower and collect specimens for further study. I thought it would be easy to find but it proved not to be so. I did find it, however in retrospect it was easy to find once I realised what its habitat preferences were.

Cape Saunders was named by Captain Cook on his first voyage to New Zealand. The Cape drops fairly precipitously into the sea. The first picture is looking south to Sandymount (319m).

Picture 2 is looking south showing the coastal cliffs and headlands.

Picture 3 is looking north-east with the cliffs dropping down to the sea.

Picture 4 is of the sea cliffs build up by a showing layers formed by successive lava flows.

Picture 5 is of a blowhole. The post on the skyline above the bare patch gives an idea of scale. The dark green leafy trees are broadleaf (Griselinia littoralis). The partially dead twiggy shrub is the coastal hebe (Hebe elliptica). Also prominent are NZ flax (Phormiun tenax) and silver tussock (Poa cita). It was a long way down to the bottom. I was not all that keen on moving around to get a better view.

Picture 6 show the coastal bluffs where a local endemic Helichrysum intermedium var tumidum is found. You can see some plants on the lower white triangular bit showing up as green patches.  The tree nettle Urtica ferox is growing through the talus that has fallen down.

Picture 7 shows the Melicytus growing on a bouldery outcrop.

Picture 8 shows a second plant tucked up amongst boulders covered in white lichen. The true colour of the rock is quite dark.

Picture 9 is a view of another plant surrounded by silver tussock (Poa cita).

Picture 10 is a close up view of the foliage of the plant. The exposed tips of the branches are killed off by strong salt laden winds that dessicate the soft tissue leaving woody spines.

[David Lyttle]

The flowers of this shrub are very small and hidden on the undersides of the branches. The fruit is a berry that is believed to be eaten and dispersed by lizards as it is not easy to see how a bird can gain access to the fruit. The flowers are beautifully coloured. In this particular species they have a violet tinge.

I am posting two pictures showing the flowers.

[Lesley Cox]

They are certainly lovely flowers David, though small. I've never noticed them before. In the first of the 2 pics, what is the white stuff with little black dots in it?

[David Lyttle]

Lesley,

The white stuff with dots on it is a lichen. The background colour of this particular lichen is white.The dots are the reproductive structures. The correct technical term is apothecia.

[Lesley Cox]

Thanks David. I thought it looked like some kind of foamy substance that might have something's eggs in it. Like frog spawn, though hardly that in a bush.

[David Lyttle]

I am posting pictures of more Melicytus flowers. These are from plants I have grown from cuttings collected from various places with the exception of Melicytus obovatus which was purchased from a nursery. They are a bit challenging to photograph as the flowers grow on the underside of the branches and face downwards. However as they were all growing in pots I just tilted the pot which is a lot easier than photographing plants in the field.

1 Melicytus chathamicus from the Chatham islands. This plant is grows into quite a large tree.

2 Melicytus alpinus Pyramids This is an unamed entity from Otago.

3 Melicytus alpinus Middlemarch I think this is the same as the preceeding.

4 Melicytus alpinus Ida This is another unamed entity that grows on screes.

5,6,7 Melicytus obovatus ( or a least this was what the nursery sold it as) I have not seen this particular species growing in the wild and there are a number of iterations found in different localities. The flowers are stunningly beautiful notwithstanding their small size.

[Gerdk]

Stunning pictures - in the close-ups the violet-typical arrangement of the stamens is clearly visible!

Are these flowers scented?

Gerd

[David Lyttle]

Hi Gerd,

Yes the flowers are scented, they smell of honey.

[David Nicholson]

Interesting thread David, thanks for posting it.

[fermi de Sousa]

These are fascinating, David, thanks for the posting.
And they are allowed into Australia, so I'll be looking for them on the NZAGS seedlist next year!
cheers
fermi

[David Lyttle]

Hi Fermi,

You do not need to import any of ours as you have plenty of your own. The Australian name is Melicytus dentatus which I am informed hides a certain amount of taxonomic fluidity.  The other name applied to some of the Australian plants is Melicytus angustifolius which was used for the New Zealand species Melicytus flexuosus until fairly recently. The genetic work I have seen shows that some groups occur on both sides of the Tasman. It seems that some of your plants may fall within our Melicytus alpinus complex. I would imagine there are a few in your part of the country as they occur in Tasmania, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia.
regards,
David

[David Lyttle]

Yesterday instead of staying at home and building stone walls as my wife wished me to do I went bush.  I headed up to Leith Saddle where there is a track through the local cloud forest to a place called Swampy Spur. I intended to photograph some more Melicytus species but they were not flowering. I took a series of photos going up through the forest that I hope conveys some idea of the forest interior. It was something of an experiment as I have always found it difficult to take photos inside forests. I have adjusted the colour balance taking blue out; I presume the human eye does not see the blue light under these conditions and sees predominantly green.

A boardwalk has been constructed along the track for 1.7 kilometres. It rises steeply in steps and though it has introduced an artificial element into the landscapes it has prevented the track from becoming a muddy slide as many of these tracks do. Water tends to channel down tracks eroding them out and turning them into muddy gullies.

The first three pictures are of the track showing the boardwalk.

The forest collects moisture during the summer from the sea fogs that blow in from the north -east. The canopy contains Libocedrus bidwilli in addition to the more common podocarps. Libocedrus tends to be found on cooler wetter sites at higher elevations. Epiphytes, including filmy ferns and mosses are present in abundance. There are many species of larger ferns on the forest floor. Several species of tree fern are also present as well.

Picture 4 shows the crown of large healthy Libocedrus emerging from the forest canopy.

Picture 5 shows and old senescent Libocedrus.

Picture 6 shows a Libocedrus loaded with epiphytes

Picture 7 shows two specimens of the tree fern Cyathea smithii growing beside the track.

Picture 8 show a general view of the forest interior.

Picture 9 shows a second view of the forest interior.

Picture 10 is a view up through the canopy. The red-coloured leaves belong to Pseudowintera colorata.

[Paul T]

What a beautiful area.  Thanks for the tour David.

[David Lyttle]

Thanks for the kind words Paul. It shows the contrast between our two floras; cooler and wetter gives the Leith Saddle cloud forest, warmer and dryer would give you the dry sclerophyll forests like those round Canberra.

You can smell this next shrub long before you can see it. It is Coprosma foetidissima. It is very common in subalpine scrub and the thicket here certainly made you aware of it.

Picture 2 is Fuchsia excorticata showing the exfoliating bark It is the largest Fuchsia in the world and is fairly common in this type of forest.

Picture 3 is the hanging spleenwort, Asplenium flaccidum again very common

Another feature of this forest are the filmy ferns predominantly from the genus Hymenophyllum. There are about 16 different species recorded locally. The are a bit difficult to identify from photos so I hope I have got them right.

Picture 4 is Hymenophyllum bivalve with a Blechnum species in the foreground.

Picture 5 is Hymenophyllum flabellatum with Tmesipteris tannensis present in the upper left

Picture 6 is Hymenophyllum flabellatum growing on the trunk of a tree fern.

Picture 7 is Hymenophyllum sanguinolentum with Blechnum procerum

Picture 8 is Lycopodium varium ( this may have had a name change)

Picture 9 is a large foliose lichen Pseudocyphylleria sp

Picture 10 is a moss that hangs in great sheets from tree branches

[Paul T]

David,

Oh those ferns!!!!   It all looks so damp.    What are the flowers on the Fuchsia excorticata like?  Cool bark!