t's spring and the flowering season for alpine plants is fast approaching. One of the earliest plants to flower, and arguably the most spectacular, is the Mount Cook buttercup. A striking plant with large green-marbled leaves and bold white flowers, it was known for decades as the ‘Mount Cook lily’ – despite being neither a lily nor confined to the named after naturalist David Lyall, who served as the surgeon aboard the Acheron surveyed New Zealand's coastline between 1848 and 1850. Lyall described a specimen he collected in Fiordland, but only the leaves, as it was not in flower.
