Alpine Flower a Day, Day 30, Buchanan's Sedge (Carex buchananii) – a brown sedge grass with tan seed-head flowers – included in our plantings down by the Heathcote river You did this dedicated to Mick, who creates sanctuaries you saved a hundred lives today in less than an hour. In a city sanctuary, you took a hose down the road to a river bank and watered the ones who were crying out. You hold their names inside your cupped hands: Carex, Buchananii, Korokia, Melicytus, Mikim

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 29, Swamp Musk (Mazus radicans) – about the size of a large clover flower, 1-2cm across – on the side of the Copland Track, West Coast The tears of Mazus radicans, or stopping to chat to the flower at the side of the track i stop to chat to the flower at the side of the track . she says notice the shadows not the light . i say why . my feet are sore . she says but the dead are crying . can you not feel them through your roots .

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 28, Korikori, Hairy Alpine, Mountain Buttercup (Ranunculus insignis) – like a big yellow buttercup, fading to white as it ages – in the rock labyrinth of Mt Owen, Kahurangi National Park Definition of buttercup It's easy with one word: buttercup but difficult with many: it equals the sun, each calling to the other, yellow shining like butter in a porcelain cup, melts under your chin do you like butter? grows using photosynthesis and water (see earlier

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 27, Gentian (Gentianella bellidifolia) – about the size of daffodils, except white, gracious and growing among tussocks on a mountain plateau! – Jan 2021, thousand-acre plateau, Kahurangi NP water one drop on my finger you come through 100 year pipes from a wellspring out west where the suburbs are spreading around you, and you fall on elaborate concrete facades, porches, driveways, re-sealed roads and byways, rush in a brown mess through wider drains

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 26, New Zealand harebell, (Wahlenbergia albomarginata) – white little flower, about a centimetre wide – these ones on the track near the summit of Mt John, Lake Tekapo The poem today was first published by Barren Magazine in 2020 – thank you, editors! Medicine Woman of Sacred Plants of Aotearoa - I Patient Notes: Depression; inhabiting the past; haunted by the past Treatment: The tenacity essence – Wahlenbergia albomarginata, the native harebell I hav

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 25, Scrambling Pohuehue (Muehlenbeckia complexa) – so pleased to find this one in flower; tiny clusters of yellow buds, each cluster about the size of your fingernail – they love creeping everywhere; this one at the top of Mt John, Lake Tekapo (Note: hopefully, I have the identification right. I initially thought it was the porcupine shrub, but the flowers on the porcupine grow along the stems. If necessary, I'll update once I hear back from the good

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 24, Common mountain daisy, pekapeka (Celmisia gracilenta) – a tufted plant with silvery leaves, and flowers about 2-3cm wide – this Celmisia occasionally lives on rocky banks on the hills behind us, fancy that! (as well as all over the hills of Aotearoa) The shape of common daisy When I colour-fill your name at the side of my page, you are not common, nor a daisy; you could be the North and South Islands lying on their sides in a sun-drenched sea. A l

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 23, Common grass tree, inaka (Dracophyllum rosmarinifolium) – olive-orange spreading shrub with needle-leaves up to a metre, covered in tiny white flowers, each one about 3mm wide – all over thousand-acre plateau in Kahurangi National Park Joy 1. the definition of joy is hiking through thousand-acre plateau a thousand flowers on the grass-tree in full bloom a thousand-thousand insects flying up and you see them you see them 2. where have all

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 22, Molloy's Potato Orchid (Gastrodia molloyi) – about half a metre tall with 12 and up flowers on the stalk – at my friend Rachel's bach in her beech forest garden in Peel Forest He beholds you Beholders are in the eye of beauty, the potato orchid noted to the man. Do you have a pupil or tongue or dimpled thigh? she cried through her green floral noses. Are you old, Father William, are you plump? I can't quite see you, I'm a little blind. Are you sp

Alpine Flower a Day: Day 21, Sundew (Drosera arcturi) – the hairy little insect-trapping fingers are about 3cm long – growing on the edges of the tarn on route to Granity Hut, Kahurangi National Park My sundew heart (according to Wikipedia) grows in bogs, tarns and seepages, at montane or alpine elevations and is commonly found unfolding in a red insectivorous dance amongst the watery stars of spagnum moss. It is found in alpine areas from the fish of Māui to the waters of gr