Past Events

Weekend Trip to the St Marys Range

The St Marys Range in North Otago is very interesting botanically. It is a region of transition between the greywacke mountains of Canterbury and the schist terrain that is more typical of Central Otago. Many northern alpines reach their southern limits here and there seems to be a considerable amount of local biodiversity within the region. We hope to see a variety of scree plants including Hebe epacridea, Leptinella atrata, Aciphylla dobsonii, Raoulia youngii, Stellaria roughii and the recently described Ranunculus acraeus. We will be accompanied by Hugh Wood of Oamaru who has been visiting the area for many years and is very familiar with the flora. We will leave Dunedin early on Saturday 13th, drive to Kurow and then proceed to the Awakino ski field where we will stay at the ski lodge huts. There is an option of traveling up earlier on Friday 12th and staying two nights. We will be able to botanize when we arrive, and again on Sunday 14th when we will return to Dunedin. The cost of accommodation for the night will be $20.00. Individuals are responsible for organizing their own food. To finalize numbers and assist with organizing transport please get in touch with David Lyttle phone (03) 454 5470 or by email.

End of year dinner

End of year dinner at Nanking Palace Chinese Restaurant (198 King Edward Street, South Dunedin) following David Lyttle's talk. All welcome! RSVP to David Orlovich (david.orlovich@otago.ac.nz) by 18 November 2008

Alpine Plants of the Southern Mountains: A Botanical Odyssey

A talk by David Lyttle. A photographic survey of the alpine plants found in the Otago/Southland region (or at least the places I have visited recently)! At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

Field trip to Ross Creek

Brian Heenan would like some help getting a baseline species list, and would like it even better if we would take up Brian Molloy's challenge, and adopt Ross Creek as our own 'Riccarton Bush' project. Depart Botany Carpark, at 9 am, or meet at the end of Cannington Road at 9:30 a.m. Leader Brian Heenan.

Ecosystem diversity in Bolivia

An illustrated talk by Robin Mitchell. Robin worked in Bolivia with Conservation International and during this talk he will give a brief tour from forests at 5500 m above sea level to the continent's last unmodified tropical savannas. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.

Fungal Foray to Knight's Bush, Tuapeka West

John and Alli Knight's forest on the banks of the Clutha River has a variety of fungal habitats, ranging from Pinus radiata at the top, Kunzea ericoides. Nothofagus menziesii and N. solandri on the slopes and mixed podocarp/broadleaf/Nothofagus on the river flat. While we've had autumn trips to Knight's Bush, we've never had a spring one. We hope to collect newly recorded species by collecting at this time of the year. There may be some cross-country walking and some of the forest tracks are steepish. Wear boots with good support and grip. Bring your camera along. Depart Botany Department car park at 8:30 am, return about 6:30 pm. If weather is unsuitable on Saturday a day trip on Sunday may be possible.

CANCELLED: Ethnobotanical study of cabbage tree (Cordyline australis)

This talk has been cancelled: A PhD proposal by Rebecca Lodge. Note Special venue: At the Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs, corner of Union and Great King Streets).

Spatial relations in plant communities

A PhD proposal by Rachel Lawrence Lodge. Note Special venue: At the Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs, corner of Union and Great King Streets).

Berwick bogs and bits of bush

All day field trip to Berwick bogs and bits of bush. John steel will lead a trip to a small stand of podocarps in a steep sided gully at Halfway Road Bush followed by a visit to Redpath Road Bog, a raised bog with associations of Sphagnum, Empodisma, Gleichenia, Halocarpus, Eleocharis etc. Depart Botany Carpark, at 8 am. Leader John Steel ph. 479 4572 (w) or 473 7211 (h).

7th Annual Geoff Baylis Lecture. Sex in the bush: what are our native woody plants up to?

A talk by Dr Brian Molloy, Research Associate, Landcare Research, Lincoln. For the past 35 years Dr Molloy has been associated with the restoration and management of Riccarton Bush in Christchurch City and has observed the reproductive behaviour and recruitment of native woody seed plants there. He argues there is strong presumptive evidence that many woody species in Riccarton Bush are facultative apomicts whose progeny now dominate the understorey and ground layer. These observations will be discussed with emphasis on species and disturbance events in Riccarton Bush and he will briefly review examples of these and other species elsewhere in the NZ Botanical Region. NOTE SPECIAL VENUE: Castle 1 Lecture Theatre, University of Otago. Nibbles and drinks will be available in the Castle Concourse from 5.10 pm.

Department of Botany 4th year students research seminars, session 2.

Two seminars by Department of Botany research students:

12:00 noon: The diet of feral pigs in the local Otago area by James Ung;

12:20 pm: Is frost tolerance restricting invaders? Invasive plants in the alpine region by Lorna Little.

Note Special venue At the Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs, corner of Union and Great King Streets).

Department of Botany 4th year students research seminars, session 1.

Three seminars by Department of Botany research students:

12:00 noon: A vegetation pattern of an Empodisma/Sphagnum bog in eastern Otago, New Zealand by Cailin Roe;

12:20 pm: Desiccation tolerance in mosses: A comparison of habitat distributions and their physiological responses by Sam Weatherall;

12:40 pm Killing gorse in three easy steps by Christina Lister.

Note Special venue At the Union Street Lecture Theatre (upstairs, corner of Union and Great King Streets).

Field trip to Bull Creek and Coastline

Southern rata dominated forest extends down lower Bull Creek to its small attractive estuary. We'll investigate the forest by way of a walking track that follows the creek up to a small waterfall before exploring the coastline strand and turf communities. Depart Botany car park at 9 am returning mid-afternoon.

Astrobiology

Prof John A Raven, University of Dundee, Scotland and John Smaillie Tennant Lecturer at University of Otago for 2008. Note special venue: Archway 4 Lecture Theatre, cnr Union Place East and Leith Walk, Otago University.

POSTPONED - Canadian Arctic

THIS TALK HAS BEEN POSTPONED. A NEW DATE WILL BE ADDED SHORTLY. A talk by Audrey Eagle. A surprising variety of plants are in flower in the areas surrounding Bathurst Inlet during the short Arctic Summer. Photographs of these together with some reference to geological features, animals and Inuit culture will be shown by Audrey Eagle. At the Zoology Benham Building, 346 Great King Street, behind the Zoology car park by the Captain Cook Hotel. Use the main entrance of the Benham Building to get in and go to the Benham Seminar Room, Rm. 215, 2nd floor. Please be prompt as we have to hold the door open.