Past Events

Products of history: Immigration timing of New Zealand plant ancestors affects present-day communities

Speaker, Angela J. Brandt, Landcare Research—Manaaki Whenua, Dunedin. Island floras tend to be distinctive in their diversity and composition often with large numbers of endemic species in few genera. One proposed explanation for this pattern is the interplay of ecological and evolutionary processes where early-arriving plant ancestors encounter greater opportunity to colonise new environments and diversify. These early-arriving groups may thus fill ecological niches and preclude later arrivals from establishing subsequently dominating plant communities to the present-day. Using dated molecular phylogenies to estimate order of arrival of plant ancestors to New Zealand, I show that early-arriving lineages tend to dominate communities in both relatively young (alpine) and older (forest) ecosystems. However, the current challenge is to understand whether anthropogenic modification and introduced species alter the role of evolutionary history in shaping New Zealand's plant communities. 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.

Botany Student Colloquium

Botany students presenting their current research. Guest lecture by Angela J. Brandt. All welcome to attend. Location: Physical Education seminar room 214 (on Union Street)

Field trip to Silverstream

We will begin from the car park at Silverstream Valley Road and take the Racemans track for a short time before turning off on to the McRaes Weir circuit. The track crosses McRaes stream and follows an old water race. We will decide on the day what, if any variations, of this route everyone wants to do. The forest will be damp, shady, and muddy in places, so bring sturdy footwear and warm clothing along with your lunch and a parka. Expected return time between 3.00–4.00 pm.

The discovery of slowness: life in the plant lane. 13th Annual Geoff Baylis Lecture Speaker Professor Steven Higgins

Speaker Professor Steven Higgins, Castle 1, University of Otago (drinks and nibbles starting from 5.15 pm in the concourse).

Abstract

Plants do many fantastic things, but they do them slowly, which make it difficult for us to appreciate them. How then will plants cope with rapid environmental change and our short attention spans?

Plants are reputedly obedient. After all they stand still and wait to be counted. But this apparent obedience masks their power as the true engineers of our planet and their disregard for human beings. It is an open secret that plants made the planet we now find so cosy—they manipulated the atmosphere, created soil and shaped our climate. Plants are of course under appreciated, and for good reason, for unlike competing deities it took plants more than seven days to achieve their wonders. But before the Anthropocene such slowness was not persecuted. Back in deep time, better did not mean faster. In deep time plants were afforded the time to evolve their way out of crises, re-engineering the world as they went. But the rules of the game are changing, our world is faster and the next crisis will not play out on geological time scales. How will plants deal with being forced into the fast lane?

CANCELLED Stevensons Bush Scenic Reserve

CANCELLED DUE TO IMPENDING BAD WEATHER Probably one of Dunedin's least known and least visited public reserves. This substantial remnant of dry, coastal, native bush with some mature podocarps surrounded by regenerating trees and shrubs forms a large V-shaped gully from McGregors Hill down to St Leonards and is a remnant of the extensive forest that once covered the north harbour hills. Leave the Department of Botany car park at 9.30 a.m. returning early afternoon.

Botanical "Show and Tell" Evening

Members are invited to bring items of botanical interest to the monthly meeting and talk about them. Items may be short slide shows, books, photographs, plants or any plant related object that has a story attached. 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 Harbour Cone

Note Change in meeting venue to Portobello.
The Harbour Cone block is a 328 ha block of pastoral land on the Otago Peninsula, purchased in 2008 by the Dunedin City Council to protect landscape, ecological, cultural, historic and recreational values. The area is managed as a farm but contains significant areas of remnant native vegetation with high biodiversity values. Some areas have been retired from grazing and an extensive planting programme has been undertaken to re-establish native forest on erosion prone slopes. Our guide for the day will be Moira Parker who has been involved with the project since its inception. Meet at the Botany carpark at 9.00 am or at Portobello opposite the Pub at 9.30 am. Due to a slip carrying away part of Highcliff Road the site is no longer accessible from that direction. Bring lunch, warm clothing, good footwear and parkas. Finish time about 3.00 pm. Rain day Sunday 2nd August. Contact David Lyttle or Moira Parker 478 0214, mobile 027 328 4443.

Field trip to Bethunes Gully and Mt Cargill

Mount Cargill is a 676-metre-high volcanic hill dominating North Dunedin. The upper slopes are clothed in regenerating cloud forest and shrubland with their associated communities of bryophytes and lichens. We willstart from Bethunes Gully at the end of Normanby Street. There is a good walking track that initially passes through exotic forest which then gives way to mixed podocarp/broadleaf forest on the mid slopes. This in turn is replaced by low forest containing a variety of species including Griselinia littoralis, Dracophyllum longifolium, Olearia ilicifolia and Coprosma foetidissima on the upper slopes. On the northern side of the ridge is a patch of mature forest with emergent Libocedrus bidwillii. Depending on the weather, as the ridge crest is rather exposed, we will explore these different communities. Another feature of interest is the hexagonal basaltic columns that outcrop below the summit. Meet at the Botany carpark at 9.00 am. Bring lunch, warm clothing, good footwear and parkas. Finish time about 3.00 pm.

Natural History of the North Andean High Mountains: the Most Diverse Alpine Ecosystems on Earth

Robert Hofstede—visitor to Botany Department and Consultant to International Organisations in Tropical Nature Conservation and Environmental Policy. The Northern portion of the Andes is characterised by a tropical cool and perhumid climate, a relatively recent geological history and a geographical position at the Northern border of a continent. In this area the páramo biome is found: the natural tussock grass and herb-dominated ecosystem above the natural tree line in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and northern Peru. It is considered the most species rich alpine vegetation in the world, with a spectacular vegetative structure and an impressive level of endemism for a continental ecosystem (up to 60%). Because of the extreme climatic conditions ("winter every night, summer every day"), many species have developed an impressive set of adaptations converting them into the top-mountaineers of the global flora. These adaptations have resulted in conspicuous growth forms, some of which are shared with the New Zealand flora. Páramo's position in the tropics and connected through mountain chains with temperate areas ensure an interesting phytogeographical diversity: the flora has many elements of both tropical and temperate (holarctic and austral-antarctic) origins. Páramo is connected to the high mountain (cloud) forest through a broad ecotone; both are of key importance for the ecology and society of the Andean countries because they form the sources of, and therefore regulate, all major hydrological systems including part of the Amazon watershed. Their conservation is a major concern because of the pressure that originates from agricultural encroachment and large scale economic development. 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.

Lichen Field trip up Leith Saddle Track

The ancient and regenerating mist forest above the top of the Northern Motorway harbours a variety of old growth inner forest lichens. We will concentrate on the large 'leafy' foliose lichens that are so characteristic of New Zealand's rainforest. The Botany Department has kindly allowed us to bring specimens back to the lab to examine identifying and interesting features more closely. Bring hand lens. Meet at the Dept of Botany car park 464 Great King St. Bad weather date Sunday.

An introduction to NatureWatch NZ

Jon Sullivan, Lincoln University. NatureWatch NZ is a place where you can share what you see in nature, meet other nature watchers, and learn about New Zealand animals, plants, and fungi. It aims to build a living record of life in New Zealand that scientists and environmental managers can use to monitor changes in biodiversity, and that anyone can use to learn more about New Zealand's amazing natural history. NatureWatch NZ is run by the New Zealand Bio-Recording Network Trust, a charitable trust dedicated to bio-recording. Jon Sullivan from Lincoln University along with Colin Meurk and Jerry Cooper from Landcare Research got things underway in 2005. Starting off as NZBRN it later adopted the international iNaturalist platform and a New Zealand optimised blend of iNaturalist was launched in August 2012 as NatureWatch NZ. 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.

O' mice an' men on remote Antipodes Island: understanding the place of mice in a subantarctic island ecosystem

Geoff Rogers—Science and Capability, DOC, Dunedin and Brian Rance—Conservation Services, DOC, Invercargill. Of all New Zealand's subantarctic islands, the Antipodes has a flora reflecting the tyranny of remoteness and physical uniformity—there are just a few score vascular species and very few woody ones at that. The islands also have highly distinct soils, plant biogeography, vegetation composition, birds, and insects and just one introduced pest—mice. The mice are targeted for eradication, a task that will call upon all New Zealand's globally-esteemed expertise in island pest eradication. This is an account of a team of biologists' challenging, mid winter attempts to understand the island's history and ecology and whether mice disrupt that highly distinct animal and plant life. ^*Of Mice and Men is a novella written by John Steinbeck and published in 1937. The title is taken from Robert Burns' poem "To a Mouse", which read: The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley." (The best laid schemes of mice and men / Often go awry.) 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.

Molteno's Regenerating Bush, Opoho

Tess and Anthony Molteno will host the BSO on a visit to their property at 236 Signal Hill Road, Opoho. Tess and Anthony have owned the property for the past 25 years. The property was originally a dairy farm and later a nursery but had been neglected for the 30 years or so before they bought it. At the time they fenced off a 2–3 Ha stand of kanuka on the west in the hope of regenerating the native bush. Since then that area has been little disturbed and they thought members of the Botanical Society might like to explore it, and any other part of the property that might interest them. Meet at the Dept of Botany car park 464 Great King St at 9.30 am.

Field trip to the Catlins

One day trip to the Catlins (note: changed from overnight stay), where we will walk the Old Coach Road track at the Tahakopa River mouth (near Papatowai). We will head through a marshy sequence to the southern-most beech forest, kahikatea and then out to the dunes. If time permits we will have a look for some coastal Celmisia at the end of Tahakopa Bay. Meet at the Dept of Botany car park 464 Great King St at 8.30am.

BSO AGM and Photographic Competition

Download the AGM handout here. A popular and eagerly anticipated event for anyone interested in Botanical photography. Learn what makes a good photograph and how to improve your photographic skills from our panel of expert judges. The best photographs will be chosen for the BSO Calendar so this is you opportunity to have one month of fame. Start organising your entries now and don't wait until the last minute. Note change in date from that advertised in the newsletter. 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.