Rangemore Track

page 2

Just ahead a fallen tree has brought it's supplejack passenger down where I can see and photograph the berries.

Birds have already eaten most of this cluster.

I also get to photograph some supplejack flowers, which are normally way up high where I never get to see them.

They're never going to get florists excited, but for the supplejack, they do the job nicely.

Spring growth among the New Zealand "pine" family is always attractive, the pale milky green of the new against the dark olive-black of the older foliage.

As we descend, the bush is beginning to close in somewhat and the "Waitakere tunnel" experience begins to manifest.

Even when the track momentarily opens to the sky, it remains narrow. Maybe stout persons like me notice this more than others....

A grey warbler bursts into song from right nearby and Alice stops to pay attention

This particular group of warblers have their own slightly different song. Instead of two falling notes at the end of the call there is only one.

We enter a patch of nikau.

A thriving Anarthropteris lanceolata (Lance fern) covers a punga trunk. [I lie. This species has now been determined on DNA evidence to be part of the genus Loxogramme, and has been named Loxogramme dictyopteris (Mett.) Copel since August of this year. See Australian Systematic Botany or New Zealand Plant Conservation Network DCW 061212]

The reverse of a frond shows the diagonally set oval sori which are characteristic.

and just along the way is another punga hosting a garment of Microsorum scolopendria (Note: This is now the correct name for what used to be called Microsorum scandens - as far as any name change is ever final or correct - following recent revisions of the genus.)

We are beginning to level out a bit now. There's also a bit more water collecting in muddy patches on the track.