Thursday, November 29, 2012

Ice at the Beach

The weather is warming up and it is beginning to feel like summer. So I went to the beach a few days ago, and went for a walk to see what interesting things I could find. I found that the ice plant was in bloom. So today I'm sharing with you some photos of ice plant and its flowers. I don't know why its called ice plant, its an odd name. 


Ice plant is a succulent that grows on coastal rocks, cliffs and sand dunes.


There are two species of ice plant in New Zealand - the native Disphyma australe and the introduced Carpobrotus edulis.


I think these photos are of C. edulis. C. edulis has leaves about 7 cm long while the native D. australe has leaves about 4 cm long.



C. edulis, also known as the Hottentot fig, was introduced to New Zealand (and other parts of the world) from South Africa.



The ice plant (both varieties) are edible. One can eat the fruits and the pickled leaves.

This is a flower bud, not a fruit! I didn't see any fruits.
The fruits are apparently (according to Andrew Crowe in his book "A field guide to native edible plants of New Zealand") quite salty, but the inner part is sweeter and more palatable, but has a rather slimey texture. 

The flowers come in yellow as well as pink

 Maybe I should give them a try sometime... 

The flowers seem popular with the bumble bees


C. edulis was planted on sand dunes in order to help stabilise them, but has since gone wild. According to www.biosecurity.govt.nz C. edulis is now considered an 'unwanted organism', because it displaces other sand dune plants and hybridises with the native ice plant species.   


It is a pity that C. edulis is becoming a pest, because it is such a pretty plant.

I'll share some of the other interesting things I found on my walk at the beach soon. 

Saturday, November 3, 2012

Calendars :)

Thank you to those of you who offered suggestions for photos. I have now chosen 12 for the calendar and uploaded thumbnails below.

The calendars will be available for NZ$15 each + postage.

To order please contact me at amgrassham@hotmail.co.nz. I will need to know how many you would like and an address to post them to. I have set up a paypal account to accept payments. If you encounter any problems, please contact me and we can work something out.

Please allow a couple of weeks for printing.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask.


January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December