User talk:BillyKwiki

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Excellent picture of Araucaria araucana. The article desperately needed one of a mature specimen of this magnificent tree in its native habitat. I moved it to the taxobox to put more emphasis on this particular picture and to make it more prominent (at the top) for people going to the article. Thanks. KP Botany 18:42, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Also, is there any chance you have a picture of Amborella trichopoda? KP Botany 19:02, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Thanks. I have 1000s of photos of New Caledonia but apparently none of Amborella trichopoda. Next time I go there I will try to get some. (I am an oceanographer and work there a lot). There are so many uniquely endemic plants there that walking through the forest is really startling, even to the non-specialist.

I uploaded (but did not place in any article) two more photos of Araucaria araucana from Conguillio National Park, Chile. Both are from far away but show the trees growing at high altitude in heavy snow high up on Volcan Llaima. (This was October = early Spring). You can do with them as you wish. See IMG_6480_monkey_puzzle_conguillio1.JPG and IMG_6483_monkey_puzzle_conguillio2.JPG. BillyKwiki 05:39, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Ditto on the very nice Araucaria araucana photo! - a pic from the wild was long overdue. Do you by any chance also have photos of any other Chilean conifers? Austrocedrus, Pilgerodendron, Podocarpus nubigenus are all without pics, and the one of Fitzroya is very low resolution. May I also encourage you to upload your photos on wiki commons, so that other language wikipedias can also use them - thanks, MPF 18:34, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

Stunning picture, well, they're both good, but the one of the trees surrounded by Andean snow fields and the clouds is breathtaking. It must have been something being there to see that view. Yes, any chance you get to photograph New Caledonian endemics, it would be great to have the pictures, even if you can't identify the species, as we can probably (hopefully) find someone to do that. KP Botany 20:04, 25 November 2006 (UTC)

I uploaded the 3 photos to Commons, and linked them to the category: Nature/Biology/Botany/Forest Species. If I get a chance I will look through my photos of New Caledonian forests and see if I have any that look identifiable. For sure there are lot of giant tree ferns (10-15m tall). The lab I work with (Institut de Recherche pour la Developpement) has a botany branch, with specimens of the 13 kinds of endemic Araucaria growing on the institute grounds, and a variety of specimens of the many unusual local plants in the hallways. I will contact my colleagues there to ask about who to talk to. You might also try the IRD photo database (www.ird.fr/indigo). Click "Vous n’êtes pas enregistré" (guest registration), then type "nouvelle caledonie foret" in the "rechercher" box at the top of the page. Or instead of "foret" try "araucaria" (20 or so pics), and "amborella" shows 2 pics! These photos are not freely usable, but they are often available for non-commercial use by asking. BillyKwiki 07:44, 28 November 2006 (UTC)