Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Wed, April 20, 2016 11:44PMWe decided to stop in Springbok for the night, mainly for having our second shower of the expedition. We got one
Lithops marmorata population processed in the morning, despite challenging light conditions - both of our camera systems require long exposure times, so windy and half cloudy is almost the worst possible weather for us. The search at the next site failed miserably, but we saw a lot of other interesting plants!
Our difficulties with finding good
Lithops populations in northern Namaqualand are partly caused by low rainfall in the last months, which means that the autumn is late and the plants have not yet started flowering. In addition, the plants that we do find are often crumpled (like the
Lithops marmorata below), and we also find the dry remains of dead
Lithops plants. Although
Lithops are decidedly adapted to dry conditions, at many sites they seem to be at their limit at the moment.
Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Tue, April 19, 2016 07:29PMSince this is officially a blog on
Lithops, I'll also post Jeroen's informative schematic illustration of the structure of
Lithops plants, and a photo of the cute species
Lithops olivacea.
Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Tue, April 19, 2016 06:40PMWe've been in the backcountry for a few days, but now we're camping near the N7 highway with a cellphone tower in sight. We've gotten our routines running, and have managed to process two populations on the best days. Today our luck was worse - our work at the first
Lithops marmorata site in the morning was cut short by rain, and in the afternoon a thunderstorm developed right when we were imaging another population.
Below are a couple of pics of our photographic arsenal. At each location we aim to measure 10-20 individual
Lithops plants and the soil on which they grow. To get a detailed view of the spectral properties of the plants, we use a Surface Optics SOC710-VP hyperspectral imager. The hyperspec camera records reflectances at 128 wavelenght bands between c. 400 and 1000 nm. Note that there is actually a
Lithops plant right below the camera in this photo.
The same individual plants are also photographed using a Nikon D7100 DSLR camera that has been modified so that it records both visible and ultraviolet (UV) light. In this case, we take two images, one using a UV-blocking filter (so that we get standard visible-light RGB images) and one using a filter that blocks visible light (so that we get a UV picture using two of the sensors). The filters are changed between the shots using a slider rig that is a variant of Jolyon Troscianko's model (see www.jolyon.co.uk). The slider and the two filters are visible in front of the lens in the photo below.
Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Thu, April 14, 2016 09:54PMAfter another couple of days in the field, we decided to stop in a guesthouse in Kenhardt for the night, for the following reasons: charging camera and laptop batteries, backing up tons of image files, and showering. The last reason was the most important, because Allan, Willem, Jeroen, and Matt started to reek seriously (I still smell like flowers).
In the last days, we've gotten into whitish quartzite soils, in which many animals and plants are very pale, forming whole white ecosystems.
Avonia sp.:
The alien-looking
Dinteranthus pole-evansii, which looks like a cracked golfball:
Then an again gigantic, but white,
Trachypetrella stone grasshopper (we're starting to suspect that some of these are new species):
And a cute little wingless
Ligariella praying mantis:
And, somewhat unsurprisingly, the minute
Lithops fulleri has white flowers:
Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Tue, April 12, 2016 05:33PMLithops species are not the only plants that look strange in South African deserts, also other groups use camouflage for avoiding detection. Here's a
Titanopsis species.
The grazing pressure on sheep and cattle pastures is high in many places, but many plants manage to avoid being eaten by growing flat on the ground.
And the insects are no less strange or well-camouflaged, Willem found this enormous toadhopper today when it happened to move a bit, the monster was about 12 cm long!
Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Tue, April 12, 2016 05:10PMYesterday started badly, we spent most of the day driving and checking localities reported in Desmond Cole's classic
Lithops book, but found nothing. In the afternoon, we changed strategy and started asking around farms for
Lithops
sightings, and got a hint that eventually led us to a 85-year old farm
worker, who gave us good instructions. Unfortunately we had to set up
camp before getting to the place, because it was getting late.
But in the morning the information proved to be correct! We found a good-sized population of
L. hookeri,
and spent most of the day doing multi- and hyperspectral imaging of the
plants. Now we are having a short break in Prieska, but soon we'll head for new adventures.
Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Sun, April 10, 2016 02:27PMHero of the day: Matt Britton (on the left below) drove all day
yesterday to bring us the hyperspec camera once it had been released by
the customs! He arrived late, but made it in time to see our first
proper UV results.
We've been living on the porch of a farmhouse some way from Hopetown for the last couple of days, but now we're again
headed for more remote regions.
Expedition blog 2016Posted by Tommi Nyman Sat, April 09, 2016 05:33PMThe sun is finally here again, after days of rain and wind. This definitely more like what I expected. Yesterday we did a lot of prospecting in new spots, but with no luck with regards to
Lithops. The scenery is amazing though.
Today, we have perfected our VIS+UV photography skills at two previously-known locations.
Lithops hookeri is flowering beatifully at this time of the year, which makes finding them a lot easier.
Note that Willem also posts images on Instagram, those can be found at https://www.instagram.com/lithopsproject !
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