Natural history of New Zealand flowers

Speaker: Phil Garnock-Jones.

New Zealand flowers are often described as small, plain, and simple, but our flowers have some unusual features too and there is substantial flower variation within large clades like Veronica sect. Hebe, Myosotis, and Pittosporum. Phil will show and talk about some of the flowers he studied and photographed for his book "He Puāwai – a Natural History of New Zealand Flowers" (2025), such as hutu (Ascarina lucida), hangehange (Geniostoma ligustrifolium) and tawa (Beilschmiedia tawa). He will also include some Otago examples and some flowers studied by Otago botanists.