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Overview
In her introductions to these books, Adams provides beautiful descriptions of several alpine locations around the country – including the Tararua Range, Canterbury, 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 watercolour illustrations and line drawings in these books 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 watercolour can be found on page 19 of Mountain Flowers of New Zealand and on page 68 of Mountain Flowers in New Zealand, illustrating a species of veronica, Parahebe spathulata. In Adams’ 1965 and 1980 descriptions, she writes:
Parahebes are low-growing, rather soft plants with wide open flowers, often brightly tinted with lilac or pink. Their toothed leaves may be shiny green or white with dense hairs. Parahebe spathulata was found growing on barren cinders on Mt. Ruapehu at 1680 m(5,500 ft) in March.