X-Nico

4 unusual facts about Southern Alps


Papaver alpinum

Rhaetian Alps poppy (P. alpinum subsp. rhaeticum) has light yellow to orange petals and feathery foliage is found in the Central and Southern Alps.

Southern Alps

Plants adapted to the alpine conditions include woody shrubs like Hebe, Dracophyllum, and Coprosma, the conifer Snow Totara (Podocarpus nivalis) and Carex sedge grasses.

The mountains are rich in flora with about 25% of the country's plant species being found above the treeline in alpine plant habitats and grassland with mountain beech forest at lower elevations (of the eastern side but not in Westland).

Tahr

While the Arabian Tahr of Oman and the Nilgiri Tahr of South India both have small ranges and are considered endangered, the Himalayan Tahr remains relatively widespread in the Himalayas, and has been introduced to the Southern Alps of New Zealand.


Benmore Peak

Flora includes slim snow tussock (Chionochloa macra) and narrow-leaved snow tussock (Chionochloa rigida) as well as an array of alpine herbs, while fauna include the New Zealand falcon/kārearea, sky lark, chukar, California quail and the New Zealand pipit/pihoihoi, as well as the common skink and common gecko.

Frederic Whitcombe

Henry Whitcombe, after whom Whitcombe Pass in the Southern Alps is named, drowned in 1863 in the Taramakau River on one of his many West Coast exploration trips.

Mittelgebirge

Though located within the Alpine foothills, the Jura Mountains are usually considered a separate Mittelgebirge range, while the Kras Plateau, leading to the Dinarides, geologically forms a part of the Southern Alps.

Nagano Prefecture

Nagano has some of the world`s most impressive highland areas, including most of the Kita-Alps Northern Alps, Chu-Alps, and Southern Alps, which extend into the neighboring prefectures.

Okuru River

It flows northwest for 45 kilometres from its headwaters in the Southern Alps to the west of the Haast Pass to the Tasman Sea at the northern end of Jackson Bay, 12 kilometres south of Haast.

Otira

It is on the northern approach to the pass, a saddle between the Otira and Bealey Rivers high in the Southern Alps.


see also

Northern Croatian Littoral

Foothills of mountains forming the northeast boundary of the region, as well as islands in the Kvarner Gulf, are a part of the Dinaric Alps, linked to a Late Jurassic to recent times fold and thrust belt, itself part of the Alpine orogeny, extending southeast from the southern Alps.

Rangitata River

The river formed the Rangitata Valley, in the center of the Southern Alps, and the on-location photography of the Edoras set from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and The Return of the King was filmed in this valley, on and around Mount Sunday.

Tropolje

Mountainous terrain of the region is a part of the Dinaric Alps, linked to a Late Jurassic to recent times fold and thrust belt, itself part of the Alpine orogeny, extending southeast from the southern Alps.