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Overview
Nancy Adams was one of New Zealand’s most prolific botanists, and a talented artist. She painted an incredible number of botanical illustrations, using them to produce important books about New Zealand flora, seaweeds, mosses and trees. One of these books is Wild Flowers in New Zealand, Nancy Adams’ homage to the flowers often overlooked—dismissed as weeds, or too commonplace to be investigated with curiosity.
In her introduction to Wild Flowers in New Zealand Adams outlines her philosophy towards this kind of flora:
We are rightly concerned with the preservation of our native vegetation in all its forms, yet strangely blind to a most diverse and interesting flora made up of naturalised and native plants that is now found in all but the more remote areas of mountain, bush and swamp.
The fifteen full-colour watercolour plates are skilfully painted by Adams, accompanied by charming descriptive text. She includes rich descriptions of the flowers’ colours, the places they tend to pop up, and oftentimes their reputation among gardeners. Much like Adams’ botanical illustrations, Wild Flowers in New Zealand is a book that blends the whimsy and the precision of her approach to botanical illustration.
This watercolour is included in Nancy Adams' publication ' Wildflowers in New Zealand' as 'Plate 7'.
Clockwise from top left, here are Adams' descriptions of the flowers:
"Navy daisy is a scrambling perennial plant on light, dry soils, especially coastal sands. The dark-centred while flowers open fully in the sun on warm, dry days.
Botanical name: Osteospermum ecklonis, South Africa. Family: Compositae.
This slender daisy bearing a long succession of dainty white flowers shading from rosy-crimson to white is a very tenacious plant found in both moist and arid places. It flourishes in cracks in concrete and masonry into which its fine seed is blown.
Botanical name: Erigeron mucronatus, Mexico. Family: Compositae.
The garden cineraria becomes established from fluffy, wind-blown seed on sheltered or shaded banks in mild districts. The large, rounded leaves and rich, purple-centred flowers distinguish it from the coastal wild cineraria.
Botanical name: Senecio cruentus, Canary Islands. Family: Compositae.
About Wellington a tall, early-summer flowering daisy with large heads of pale-to dark-mauve flowers is observed to be spreading rapidly as a result of earthworks and the transport of soil and road metal.
Botanical name: Senecio glastifolius, South Africa. Family: Compositae.
On coarse shingle or sandy shores a bright-magenta, yellow-centred daisy with divided, rather succulent leaves is a conspicuous coastal plant sometimes called wild cineraria.
Botanical name: Senecio elegans, South Africa. Family: Compositae."