Page 23 - 2008 NZ SUB ANTARCTIC ISLANDS - SMARTPHONE

So, what are “megaherbs?” The cool and detached scientific definition says that megaherbs are
herbaceous perennial wildflowers endemic to these Subantarctic Islands. They are very large
plants with huge leaves and enormous flowers of unusual colors. The scientists add that these
plants can grow to such large proportions due to the fact that they evolved in the absence of
herbivorous predators—mammalian or insectivorous. Herbaceous is defined as having the
quality of plants whose stems do not produce woody textures or structures. They also tend to die
back each season but return when the growing conditions needed reappear. All the scientific
wording escaped our minds as our eyes were dazzled by the beauty of the meadows blanketing
the valley through which we struggled along muddy, slippery paths criss-crossed by the grasping
leaves and tendrils of the often waist-high plants around our ankles and knees! There were the
brilliant fuzzy yellow spires of the golden lily at least 8 inches tall. They were so numerous that
from a distance the whole landscape appeared to be golden-yellow. But interspersed among them
were the enormous deeply erose faces of the lavender Campbell Island daisies, staying closer to
the ground but clustering together to create banks of beauty! Darker purples interrupted the
panorama in the form of chrysanthemum-like flowers on the Campbell Island carrot plant. And if
that were not enough, the myriad greens of all the growing things were rampant and tangled and
gorgeous, with broad leaves, straight and narrow ones, round and flat ones! The scene was
absolutely mind-boggling and eye-popping. This magnificent “Indian blanket” of colors
stretched away in every direction we could see, up hillsides and down in deeper gullies. No
wonder we cared not a whit about scientific jargon then.

What could have improved upon this primordial unsullied scene of Nature’s prodigal gifts? Well,
we got that something else too—in the form of Southern Royal Albatross on their tussock-based
nests, dotting the whole scene with purest white patches in among all the colors! These huge
birds were in mid-incubation of this year’s eggs, so they sat serenely and patiently and absolutely
fearless as we tramped and tripped and fell along the path. Some were close enough to the path
that we could have reached out to touch their silvery-white feathers—if only that hadn’t been
forbidden. But of course we would not have wanted to take a chance of disturbing one of these
dedicated parents so that it left the egg to cool and kill the chick developing inside. Albatross
have enough to challenge their survival without human interference on this reserve—but more
about the risks Albatross face later.

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