Page 44 - 2008 NZ Subantarctic Islands

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

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