This year’s Wairarapa plant collecting trip was to the Pongaroa area.
Day 1 started with packing up Te Papa’s 4WD. Then the long drive to our Akitio accommodation.
Roadside collecting. Photo by Jean-Claude Stahl. © Te Papa.
We made a few stops along the way, targeting places that looked to have a diverse array of weeds and/or be promising for mosses.
Weed montage. Photos by Jean-Claude Stahl. © Te Papa.
We followed a colleague’s directions down a backcountry road to see Celmisia spectablis. Celmisia daisies most often grow in alpine conditions, so lowland Wairarapa (altitude = 300m) is an unusual site.
Celmisia spectablis. Too late to catch it flowering. Photo by Jean-Claude Stahl. © Te Papa.