Mystery organism photo of the month – November

There are two organisms in this photo…  who can tell me what the small round scaly things are?

And for bonus points, whats the other organism in the photo?

Mystery organism photo of the month

A test for you all this week – who can tell me what this is a photo of?

Photo of the month

I’ve decided to start a couple of monthly series, in order to keep this blog on track and create a few themes.  Photo of the month is quite obvious, but the “rules” are that it will be an native species from the NZ forest, in its natural environment*.

For this month, here is a northern rata flower (Metrosideros robusta) to remind you of summer.  Taken on the slopes of Mt Kapakapanui in the western Tararua ranges, just north of Wellington.   Interesting that the flower was quite yellowish instead of red - can any botanists out there shed some light on why this is?

 

*Rules may be subject to change

Funky fungus

I saw this Stinkhorn fungus Aseroe rubra on a walk up Mt Kapakapanui in the Tararuas. It may look pretty, but apparently the spores smell like rotting meat.