Autumn colours and textures

A flash of colour in the relative shelter of Happy Valley, by Owhiro Bay -     a liquidambar tree flaming in bright contrast with the trees and shrubs nearby.

Behind it are the upright bare branches of a line of poplar trees and behind them, down beside the stream are some willows - you can just see the soft gold of the willow leaves which have not yet fallen. 

Up the hillside beyond is the bright green of various shrubs with a golden gorse flower embellishment. 

At the front right there is a small coprosma with the typical divaricating tangle found in many New Zealand native shrubs.

The lovely warmth of the colours and textures stopped me in my tracks, to bask a bit in the pleasure of it, knowing that soon it will be winter and warmth will be more likely found indoors.

Batty or catty? The flowers of Tacca chantrieri

A striking sight in the Begonia House at Wellington Botanic Garden.  Not a begonia! 

The black bat plant, also known as cat's whiskers or devil flower.   

Black (or dark purple) is an unusual colour for flowers, and the flowers of this plant have a most unusual appearance. 

The bat-like wings are bracts and the long whiskery growths are filiform bracteoles - modified leaves.  They frame an umbel (cluster) of flowers - the lower ones have opened and are fading, the middle ones are wide open and above them is an array of buds that are yet to open.

The long leaves are a lush glossy deep green, but are not visible in the image. 

A closer view of the flowers and bracts, demonstrating the difficulty of photographing very black flowers...

This is a large perennial plant from South east Asia and it is found in the understorey of tropical rainforests.   It is quite popular as an ornamental plant but in the wild it is endangered because of habitat destruction.

The plant produces taccalonolides and these are being investigated because they show promising anti-cancer properties - microtubule activity which kills certain cancer cells but not healthy ones - similar to Taxol, a very important anti-cancer treatment  found in the yew tree.

So - losing this plant could have meant losing a promising cancer treatment.  How careless we can be with the treasures around us!

Cloudy stripes - indoors version? Zygopetalum flowers

To my eyes their patterns echo the rather clumpy stripes of the altocumulus undulatus clouds.  Otherwise they are a sight as different as can be - flowers of an orchid, Zygopetalum "Titanic" - or that was the cultivar name my plant was given when I got it fifteen years ago - but the accuracy of horticultural naming can be very erratic. 

The flowering spikes, longer than the leaves, have about six flowers cascading down. The colours of the flowers - dark maroon blotches on the green sepals and the big white lip with purple stripes and speckles - make them an arresting sight.  They have a lovely scent and last well. 

My plant seems to flower mostly in late autumn - apparently they are meant to flower in winter or spring.  But given that Zygopetalum come from humid forests in South America, and mine has lived in a rather cool and dry room, albeit with good morning light, it isn't too surprising that it doesn't necessarily conform to expectations.  Bold and nonconformist, it is delightfully reliable and uncomplaining and a source of great pleasure!

Stripes - altocumulus undulatus for the cloud-savvy

Hope I've got the cloud-naming correct - with the help of the Cloud Collector's Handbook (see parhelion post) and the good old internets.  A striking sight yesterday in the late afternoon...

They seem to arise in unsettled weather - harbingers of further rain - and appeared after a day of showers and sun, but rather muted autumnal sunlight.  "Altocumulus" refers to their altitude (mid-level) and that they are layers or patches of cloudlets, and "undulatus" describes the wave-shaped pattern.

Closer up, the stripey shadows on the hills of the Orongorongos.  The hills are still quite brown after the long dry, but there is some green appearing and the clouds suggest that there will be more rain to assist the grass.

After the rain - the greening begins

I had hoped that the Owhiro Bay hillside with the worst fire damage would be recovering with the rain over the last month.  But no such luck.  And there was also evidence of some erosion - since there isn't much topsoil above the sandstone base that is a great pity.  However near the macrocarpa tree which was by another badly burned area, there were signs of new life...

Closer up, the devastation's mostly monochromatic textures, jazzed up by the green of some grasses and a few recovering shrubs. 

I was being pretty unrealistic and impatient in my hope that real recovery would have appeared already.  It does look as though the gorse burned up most completely and it will be interesting to see which plants come through as the winter progresses. But I am pretty confident that spring will bring an amazing sight, a silver lining as it were - but it won't be silver.  (There is a daisy which I have mentioned on the blog previously - watch this space!)