Photo Challenge Week 24 - National Flower

18 June 2016, 06:26


Canon EOS 7D Mark II, Canon EF 100mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens, 1/200 second @ f/8.0, ISO 400.

This week the challenge is once again trolling the southern hemisphere by getting us to photograph a flower of significance to the area.

New Zealand doesn’t have a national flower. We have three main national icons: the Kiwi, the Southern Cross, and the Silver Fern (shown below). However, upon reading this challenge, I thought of two trees that flower: the pohutukawa (which flowers at Christmas) and the kowhai (which flowers from July to November). It’s June, so neither is supposed to be flowering at the moment. However, we went out exploring today, with an expectation of only finding silver ferns. We managed to find a small, sad looking kowhai tree that was actually in flower. Then, on the drive home, we saw a pohutukawa in flower. I’ve put my favourite shot of the kowhai up here. The name comes from the Maori word for ‘yellow’, and it’s not hard to see why.

A silver fern:

Posted by Michael Welsh at 06:26.

Hop perspicuously

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