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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 in New Zealand, a field guide published as part of the ‘Mobil New Zealand Nature Series’.
In her introduction to Mountain Flowers in New Zealand, Adams provides beautiful descriptions of several alpine locations around the country – including the Tararua Range, Malborough, 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 40 watercolour illustrations 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 watercolour can be found on page 47 of Mountain Flowers in New Zealand, illustrating the North Island vegetable sheep, Raoulia rubra.
In Adams’ description, she writes:
"The mounded, ashy-grey cushions of the South Island Raoulia eximia, like Haastia, are also easily and often mistaken for resting sheep. Although closely related, the North Island Raoulia rubra is smaller, greener and not at all sheep-like. It grows in open, rocky places from the Tararuas to the western Nelson mountains.
Mt Holdsworth; February."