50 Blogs Posts ALREADY!

15/5/2014

Welcome to the 50th blog post for the New Zealand Epiphyte Network! Since beginning in April 2013 a small team of epiphyters have been regularly brightening your inbox with some pretty diverse discussions, stories, photos or ramblings. To celebrate, I’m going to reflect on some of this journey to date:

Favourite stories

Epiphyte Island covered our mission to Rangitoto Island where we found 18 native epiphyte species growing the harsh volcanic rocks. This was both a favourite trip and a favourite story.

Investigating epiphytes of the Australian East Coast - by Jennifer is a story about awesome epiphytes and a new frontier of research over the ditch. Jennifer shared some sweet photos and made us all envious of her tree climbing expeditions!

Jennifer Sanger climbing a giant 50m fig tree (Ficus watkinsiana) (©Steven Pearce).

Favourite science

The series on Facilitation Cascades is definitely a favourite. The facilitation cascade theory (and related ones) help to explain how each epiphyte species facilitates the arrival of the next one. There are four posts in this series so lots more to read if you're interested.

Facilitation cascade. Adapted from Angelini & Silliman (2013).

Favourite news

The recent discovery of The mind-blowing mimic vine is one of the most exciting news pieces to come from the canopy research scene lately. It was just last week so have a read about this species that can mimic a range of different host leaves.

Favourite photos

Here are some of our favourite photos to date:

This great shot by tree-climber Olivia Henwood shows both the complexity of epiphyte communities and the vast expanse of forest out there that is yet to be explored!

This photo of mine from New Plymouth shows the diversity and abundance of the urban epiphyte population in this lovely town.

Bill Clarkson captured great natural lighting on this beautiful kahakaha inflorescence.

Favourite comments

There is a great thought-provoking comment by Xerographica on The last uninvaded frontier and lots of great comments from Kirsty, Ang and Jennifer throughout. Thanks team!

So what's next?

Well the fascinating nature of this topic means that the interesting blogs will continue. The only thing that might change is a few different authors and hopefully a few more comments from our readers – let us know if you liked the post, what else you would like to know on the topic, or if you disagree with something we’ve said!

Here’s to the next 50!

All the best from the team at the NZ Epiphyte Network :)

2 Comments

Alastair Macdonald

21/5/2014 05:00:30 pm

You or some of your members should be descending on the west coast of the South Island. I know they had a terrible wind storm last Easter with huge amounts of native trees blown down, thousands of hectares in fact. Wind fall is the best and easiest way for people to see and record epiphytes from 50 feet up at ground level. I stopped on the Karamea Bluff road and had a poke around and saw many plants that I would not normally see.
Cheers, Alastair.

Catherine

22/5/2014 06:39:10 am

Thanks Alastair!

I recently flew through the West Coast on a roadtrip from Aoraki and saw a few stunning epiphyte communities but not many on fallen trees. Thanks for sharing, it sounds like a great opportunity to get up close and personal!

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Catherine Kirby

I work with NZ's native vascular epiphytes at the University of Waikato. I completed an MSc on epiphyte ecology and the shrub epiphyte Griselinia lucida and have recently published the Field Guide to NZ's Epiphytes, Vines & Mistletoes.

For me, the highlights of epiphyte research are the many unknowns, the amazing way that these plants survive in the canopy, and of course tree climbing!

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