MOUNTAIN PLANTS

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30367, 17 February 1964, Page 8

MOUNTAIN PLANTS

Special Study Of Needs Most people would be surprised to find alpine plants from the- bleak high altitudes of the Southern Alps flourishing in Palmerston North. But a wide variety of these plants grow in a cooled glasshouse at the Plant Physiology Division, Department of of Scientific and Industrial Research. They are providing information for a study of the environmental factors affecting the native alpine vegetation. A considerable amount of research effort has been directed at extension of pastoral farming in the South Island high country at altitudes over 3000 feet. Beyond the uppermost farmable levels, however, there is still plant life ' which must play an important part in the future of South Island farming, since the high-altitude native vegetation has a definite bearing on the problems of soil conservation and flood control.

In the plant physiology project, a detailed study will be made of the factors affecting these plants, the aim being to gain knowledge of their requirements as a basis for any management practices that are applied in the future. Making the study is Dr. D. Scott, who returned to New Zealand last year from the United States, where he had spent some years studying the productivity of Rocky Mountains tundra. His work here is still in the preliminary stage. hi his glasshouse study, he is learning how to grow New Zealand alpine species and working out methods of measuring their growth. At the same time, special equipment, suitable for microclimatic measurements in remote areas, is being developed. As his work extends, Dr. Scott will carry on detailed studies of the climatic and micro-climatic requirements of these plants, both in the field and in the controlledclimate facilities at the division’s headquarters in Palmerston North.