Flowers
VulcanSpirit
Richard & Alison Brunstrom
Sun 10 Feb 2013 13:03
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NZ has relatively few native wildflowers,
although it has a huge range of plants with an almost incredible 85% of them
being endemic. But few flowers. This is because the natural vegetation was
forest scrub or swamp. There were no large herbivores to create grasslands, and
so very few flowers. However in the alpine areas tree and scrub cover was absent
and more flowers have arrived and adapted. As in the rest of the Pacific most
native flowers are white, probably because that's the colour that the few native
bees preferred. Here are a few I found in the Hooker Valley:
 Above is the Large Mountain Daisy Clemisia
semicordata. NZ has loads and loads of montane daisies - the genus
Clemisia alone has over 60 species.
 This is Mount Cook Lily - as you can see it's
really a buttercup, Ranunculus lyalli. This is the same genus as
European buttercups. Strange that close relatives wre living naturally so far
apart.
 This is the NZ Harebell Whalenbegia
albomarginata.
 I have no idea what this is. Possibly a hebe. The
genus Hebe, now common in UK gardens, is native to NZ where there
are well over 100 different species.
 Above is Scarlet Snowberry Gaultheria
crassa which as you can see is clearly a member of the Ericaceae, closely
related to the European heathers and bilberries.
And lastly a yellow flower. I can't find it in my
flower book, so it may well be an introduction. Or perhaps I need a better
flower book. But it's pretty.
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