Weekend Field trip to West Dome, Northern Southland

West Dome (1270 m) is a prominent feature located on the southern edge of the Eyre Mountains near Mossburn, Northern Southland. Mossburn is approximately 3 hours travelling time from Dunedin. At this stage we plan to travel to Mossburn on Friday evening and find accommodation somewhere in the Lumsden-Mossburn area so we can start on the mountain early on Saturday. People have the option of travelling back to Dunedin on Saturday evening or staying an additional day and to look at further sites on Sunday. West Dome has an area of ultramafic rocks which weather to soils that contain low concentrations of major nutrients and high concentrations of toxic metals. This has considerable influence on the vegetation growing there and a number of species are restricted to these substrates. Included amongst ultramafic endemics for the area are the rare Celmisia spedenii and a species of Myosotis.