Kōwhai flower photos taken by Nigel in Dunedin Botanic Garden in late September 2020 (spring in New Zealand). Kōwhai are Sophora species.
Click on any photo to enlarge.
Kōwhai flowers against Pittosporum foliage.
Kōwhai petals carpeting a lawn. Cropped from larger photo (below)
Text by Liz, photos by Nigel; Exploring Colour (2020)
keyword: kowhai
Such interesting flowers. Are they fully open in the first shot? You mentioned growing one…do you no longer have it in your yard?
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Close to fully open, I’d say they open a little more before the petals drop. I think the garden one you’re referring to might be the kōwhai standard that I found in Gore and Nigel got some pics of – those are in an old post of mine that has quite a few kōwhai photos: https://exploringcolour.wordpress.com/2017/09/25/golden-kowhai-flowers-new-zealand/
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Yeah. I misread seen as had. 🙂
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Beautiful
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One of the highlights of the season!
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These must be a very welcome and uplifting sight in spring. The flowers are so beautiful that I’m sure it’s amazing to see a whole tree covered in them. 🙂
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Absolutely! they’re very showy. And our songbirds the tuis love them when they’re in flower for the nectar 🙂
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That’s a great bonus! 🙂
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The yellow blossoms are wonderful, Liz, so bright and cheery, even when they have fallen to the ground.
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That nails it! for me their bright cheerfulness is very endearing and as you’ve said – even when they have fallen to the ground 🙂 Actually, there has to be a beautiful spiritual lesson in that – thank you my friend!
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Thanks, Liz. I’ll have to think over your last statement, another one of those many questions to ponder as we think about the nature of beauty (and the beauty of nature).
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I especially like the last photo. The tree itself is especially graceful.
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Some species are upright and some are weeping. In a private garden situation I’ve seen one grown as a standard – it was stunning!
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Your kōwhai flowers certainly reveal their membership in the legume family.
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They do!
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I’m drawn to the more abstract crop in your second photo. Such lovely flowers they are. They seem to me to be a yellow variant of cherry blossoms.
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I’m glad I did the crop then! Thank you 🙂
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Gorgeous
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Thanks Sheree, these golden blossoms are one of the great joys of spring in New Zealand and much appreciated after winter!
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😎
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