Mount Cook lily (Ranunculus lyalli), Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
High on the slopes of the Southern Alps the Mount Cook lily blooms, covered in raindrops, in the wettest region on earth. It is in fact not a lily at all, but the world's largest buttercup, a New Zealand endemic, growing to one metre in height.
New Zealand's alpine flowers are notable for their lack of colour. The proportion of white flowering alpine plants in New Zealand is 77% – about twice the world average.
The prevalence of white flowers seems to be related to New Zealand’s lack of specialised insect pollinators. Flower colour attracts certain pollinators – for example, long-tongued bees respond especially to blue and ultraviolet. New Zealand has no native species of long-tongued bees. Colour is a cost to the plant in terms of resources, and if colour has no advantage, then in severe alpine environments evolution tends to select against it.
(Partially adapted from Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.)
From a slide.
211106 001
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All images are the property of the photographer and may not be reproduced, copied, downloaded, transmitted or used in any way without the written permission of the photographer, who can be contacted by registering with flickr and using flickrmail.
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Mount Cook lily (Ranunculus lyalli), Fiordland National Park, New Zealand
High on the slopes of the Southern Alps the Mount Cook lily blooms, covered in raindrops, in the wettest region on earth. It is in fact not a lily at all, but the world's largest buttercup, a New Zealand endemic, growing to one metre in height.
New Zealand's alpine flowers are notable for their lack of colour. The proportion of white flowering alpine plants in New Zealand is 77% – about twice the world average.
The prevalence of white flowers seems to be related to New Zealand’s lack of specialised insect pollinators. Flower colour attracts certain pollinators – for example, long-tongued bees respond especially to blue and ultraviolet. New Zealand has no native species of long-tongued bees. Colour is a cost to the plant in terms of resources, and if colour has no advantage, then in severe alpine environments evolution tends to select against it.
(Partially adapted from Te Ara, the Encyclopedia of New Zealand.)
From a slide.
211106 001
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All images are the property of the photographer and may not be reproduced, copied, downloaded, transmitted or used in any way without the written permission of the photographer, who can be contacted by registering with flickr and using flickrmail.
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