BOTANY IN THE ALPS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30073, 6 March 1963, Page 7

BOTANY IN THE ALPS

University Work At Kelly’s Creek A continuing systematic investigation of ground cover in the Southern Alps js being made by botany students of the University of Canterbury. Fourteen stage in - students have returned after a week in the Kelly’s creek region, near Otira. It has become customary for students at this level to make a field trip in enrolling week. The weather is usually good, lectures are about to begin, and much material and information can be gathered for the year's study. This year's party had bad weather, but it was not deterred from covering the native forests, sub-alpine scrub, and alpine grassland as well as pakihi, the peculiar bog which often forms after forest has been felled. Kelly’s creek is a good area for this work. It has extensive beech forests, lowland rimu stands, and the Westland hill forests of rata and kamahi. The students examined plant species, but .two-thirds of their time was devoted to scientific methods of investigation and sampling. This work fits in with a research study by an honours student who is investigating the reasons for the welldefined boundary of beech forests along the Taramakau. The party, directed by Messrs C. J. Burrows and B. A Fineran, used the youth hostel at Kelly’s creek as its base.