Howeas, Howeas, Howeas

[Tyrone]

Hi guys,

 

Want some pictures to look at on a Saturday night from the most beautiful place in the world, Lord Howe Island. Sure you do. 

This place is just so picturesque you just can't take a boring picture. Don't even aim your phone or camera and you will get an interesting pic. Put some thought into it and you'll have a wonderful picture.

But for us palm lovers, you want to see palms. So let's start with Howea.

[Tyrone]

All of these first 3 pics are from the base of Mt Lidgebird.

[Tyrone]

H belmoreana and H forsteriana

[Tyrone]

Another belmoreana pic and forsteriana with Mt Lidgbird and Mt Gower in the background.

[Tyrone]

One of the taller forsteriana around at Neds Beach.

 

The rats have really done a number on the H belmoreana seed on the island. There is very very little of it. There is heaps of forsteriana seed though. I think the rats prefer the belmoreana seed. Here was some of the only seeds we found on Mt Gower that had been freshly eaten by rats. Of all the species on the island H belmoreana is probably the most affected by rats. There is some regeneration of this species on the island, more of it on the northern end, but one can only guess how the belmoreana population will react when they eradicate the rat next winter. Some areas of belmoreana forest were almost devoid of any babies coming up. 

[Tyrone]

One thing I noticed about belmoreana is the fact it really doesn't like limestone coral sands. We never found it on limestone sands. From what I had read it liked the higher elevations but we did find them right down to sea level provided they were on the more acidic gravelly volcanic loams and often in the darker wet areas around streams and soaks. H forsteriana will grow on the same gravelly volcanic loams but is equally at home on limestone coral sands especially near water. So it's not really an altitude thing with belmoreana it's more about the soil and moisture levels. They will grow in full sun but look much better under canopy in the forest too.

[sandgroper]

Great photos Tyrone, it's certainly a beautiful island mate.

[Neil C]

What are they planning to eradicate the rats with? Sounds like a mammoth task..rats are sneaky @#$¥ers.

Regards Neil

[palmfriend]

Breathtakingly beautiful photos!!

I am glad to have some Forsterianas doing somehow well - they are painstakingly slow over here, though -

and my Belmorianas are still nothing more than seeds, but I am not complaining - some great species I really like,

thanks for posting!

Best regards from Okinawa,

Lars

 

[Tyrone]

46 minutes ago, Neil C said:

What are they planning to eradicate the rats with? Sounds like a mammoth task..rats are sneaky @#$¥ers.

Regards Neil

It was meant to happen this winter, but government red tape that was held up by the Barnaby Joyce scandal meant it has been put off until next year. 45 tonnes of special rat baits is to be dropped from a helicopter onto the entire island in two applications 2 weeks apart. The wood hens and kurrawongs will be taken into captivity during the baiting so they don't eat the dead rats. The Kermadec islands were meant to have been de ratted by the same NZ company.

Rats have been there on LHI for around 100 years since a supply ship was shipwrecked there and all the rats ran ashore. So it's fair to say that no one alive now has seen LHI and its forests with no rats on the island. They eat the palm seeds, raid birds nests and cause havoc to the ecology. Once they are gone they can reintroduce the closest living relatives of the now extinct birds on the island. These should then allow for proper seed dispersal on the island. Give it ten years and the forest floors should look jam packed with palm seedlings, especially in the H belmoreana forests.

[Tyrone]

13 minutes ago, palmfriend said:

Breathtakingly beautiful photos!!

I am glad to have some Forsterianas doing somehow well - they are painstakingly slow over here, though -

and my Belmorianas are still nothing more than seeds, but I am not complaining - some great species I really like,

thanks for posting!

Best regards from Okinawa,

Lars

 

Lars I've got one Satakentia in a pot here. When I get my tunnel house it's going in there as it will love the extra warmth my climate doesn't provide. Here the LHI stuff is relatively easy although I still need to grow my Howeas under canopy as we can go below zero here. Would love to see the southern Japanese islands one day.

[bubba]

Wow! Thank you

[Matt in OC]

I can attest from experience that rats love belmoreana seed. 

Great pics!

[Palm Tree Jim]

Those are some incredible habitat pictures.

Thanks for sharing.

[Jim in Los Altos]

12 hours ago, Matt in OC said:

I can attest from experience that rats love belmoreana seed. 

Great pics!

I just had my oldest fruiting H. forsteriana raided by native black squirrels. I had a bumper crop of ripening fruit and younger green fruit and there's not one single one left. :(

[Darold Petty]

Tyrone;  did you do the Mt. Gower hike with Jack Schick or the other guide ?

[richnorm]

On 6/10/2018, 2:04:55, Tyrone said:

It was meant to happen this winter, but government red tape that was held up by the Barnaby Joyce scandal meant it has been put off until next year. 45 tonnes of special rat baits is to be dropped from a helicopter onto the entire island in two applications 2 weeks apart. The wood hens and kurrawongs will be taken into captivity during the baiting so they don't eat the dead rats. The Kermadec islands were meant to have been de ratted by the same NZ company.

Rats have been there on LHI for around 100 years since a supply ship was shipwrecked there and all the rats ran ashore. So it's fair to say that no one alive now has seen LHI and its forests with no rats on the island. They eat the palm seeds, raid birds nests and cause havoc to the ecology. Once they are gone they can reintroduce the closest living relatives of the now extinct birds on the island. These should then allow for proper seed dispersal on the island. Give it ten years and the forest floors should look jam packed with palm seedlings, especially in the H belmoreana forests.

Probably 1080 posion which is controversial.  NZ has a goal to be pest free by 2050 - that's the whole country!  Obviously near impossible with current methods of trapping and poisoning but maybe with genetic modification and viruses there could be a chance to extinct some of the worst culprits.  From what I have seen in areas that have been protected with predator fences and then cleared of pest animals is the explosion of insects not least native cockroaches and cicadas.

[Tyrone]

2 hours ago, richnorm said:

Probably 1080 posion which is controversial.  NZ has a goal to be pest free by 2050 - that's the whole country!  Obviously near impossible with current methods of trapping and poisoning but maybe with genetic modification and viruses there could be a chance to extinct some of the worst culprits.  From what I have seen in areas that have been protected with predator fences and then cleared of pest animals is the explosion of insects not least native cockroaches and cicadas.

No it's not 1080 from what I can gather. Obviously they're not going to tell you but it sounds similar to normal rat poison but the attractant connected too it they simply can not resist, and the total formulation is not commercially available. Let's hope they do it.

Interesting that they're going to give NZ a go. Wow. Also the insects all coming back. I must admit I didn't see too many insects on LHI. I think I saw one fly, which for an Aussie is quite a noticeable thing.

[Tyrone]

5 hours ago, Darold Petty said:

Tyrone;  did you do the Mt. Gower hike with Jack Schick or the other guide ?

Yes. My wife and I went up the top with Jack. I'll post pics eventually.

I walked every trail on the island. Would have loved to have seen the big slope on the eastern edge of Gower where that 2 hectare Ficus lives but I think it's boat access only as there are no tracks through the forest out there.

[DoomsDave]

I think I’m getting religious!

[TomJ]

OMG

 

[Bennz]

4 hours ago, Tyrone said:

Would have loved to have seen the big slope on the eastern edge of Gower where that 2 hectare Ficus lives 

What! I thought that tree had died years ago! My wife and I visited LHI in 1999 and they told me it was dead then. I guess there might be another one that big by now? 

 

Been almost 20 years since I visited, seriously overdue for a return!

[Tyrone]

Hi Ben. Maybe it is dead then. I just read a book while there and they talked about it. There were some massive Ficus there though.

Want some more pics?

[Tyrone]

The wind can really pick up there. No wonder Howeas are very tolerant of coastal salt spray and wind.

[Tyrone]

Howea belmoreana seed shots ( of the very few we found) and Pandanus forsteri looking all architectural.

[Tyrone]

 

I was quite surprised how thin the trunks are on H belmoreana as I'm more acquainted with the fatter forsteriana trunk. The one I had in my old Perth garden had a 60cm diameter base.

[Tyrone]

Howea and Pandanus go together like peas and carrots.

[greysrigging]

I worked on Lord Howe ( and Norfolk Island ) in the early 200o's erecting satellite antennas. Almost felt guilty accepting payment for working there. Magnificent part of the world. Worked hard and played harder....( as one does in the construction game ). Finished the job a day and a half early so we had the choice ( on full pay ) of climbing that huge mountain or snorkeling in the bay.....snorkeling won.....lol 

 

 

[bubba]

Again! What a spot!

[Tassie_Troy1971]

fantasic pics