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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 Wild Flowers in New Zealand as 'Plate 7'.
Clockwise from bottom left, here are Adams' descriptions of the flowers:
"Love-in-the-mist with its feathery foliage and soft blue flowers is a favourite garden annual that has become established in wasteland. It seeds freely and appears in cracks of footpaths, in graveyards and other arid places.
Botanical name: Nigella damascena, Mediterranean. Family: Ranunculaceae."
"Japanese anemones in shades of pink, sometimes white, are tall perennial plants that have escaped from cultivation either from seed or from discarded clumps. In cool, shaded places they form a close cover of dark-green foliage and flower in late summer. They are of hybrid origin.
Botanical name: Anemone x hybrida, Japan. Family: Ranunculaceae."
"Columbine and granny bonnet are popular names for an old-fashioned perennial flower now found in wayside places. Columbines seed freely and often hybridise where species from various countries are grown together.
Botanical name: Aquilegia vulgaris, Europe. Family: Ranunculaceae."
"Periwinkles will tolerate deep shade and form a dense carpet of dark-green leaves on slender creeping branches. The large periwinkle is one of the few plants that will flourish beneath macrocarpa trees. The clear, pale-lavender flowers appear in early spring.
Botanical name: Vinca major, southern Europe. Family: Apocynaceae."
"The lesser periwinkle is not as widespread as the more familiar pale-flowered species. With violet petals and smaller leaves, it too is an early-spring flowering perennial. Periwinkles set seed infrequently but are spread by creeping and rooting systems.
Botanical name: Vinca minor, southern Europe. Family: Apocynaceae."