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Overview
Nancy Adams was one of New Zealand’s most prolific botanists, and a talented artist. She produced a vast number of botanical illustrations, which were included in widely-distributed and well-regarded books about New Zealand flora. One of these books is Mountain Flowers of New Zealand, a field guide published by A.H. & A.W. Reed (1965).
In her introduction to Mountain Flowers of New Zealand, Adams provides beautiful descriptions of several alpine locations around the country – including the Tararua Range, Tongariro, Taranaki, and Fiordland National Park – and suggests where and when mountain flowers might be found in these areas. She encourages readers to explore these ecosystems with care and admiration:
Please remember that in many places the mountain plants are protected and are not to be gathered. To sketch or photograph them is a pleasurable way of recording their beauty.
The 32 watercolour illustrations and 17 drawings in this book are accompanied by rich and engaging text describing the flowers’ colour variations, habitat preferences, seasonal growth patterns, and how they may have gotten their common names. These descriptions evoke both the precise scientific accuracy and the warm, whimsical accessibility that was also the hallmark of Adams’ illustrative style.
This detailed pencil drawing can be found on page 10 of Mountain Flowers of New Zealand, illustrating the mountain buttercup, Ranunculus insignis.
In Adams’ description, she writes:
Two northern mountain buttercups have yellow flowers in early summer: Ranunculus insignis was collected from Ruapehu at 6,000 ft in January; Ranunculus nivicolus from 5,500 ft from a grassy meadow on Egmont in November.