Scurvy Grass (2022)

Scurvy Grass (2022)

(November 6, 2022) Scurvy Grass. Design by Bronwyn Lloyd (Auckland, 2022)

Scurvy Grass

(for Bronwyn)

The other place I landed at was the north point of the Bay 
where I got as much Sellery and Scurvy grass as loaded the Boat
– Captain James Cook (27/10/69)


It’s quite a ways from Napier
over the worst of roads 

but a trip to Tolaga Bay
must have seemed something 

for kids who’d never been there
on arrival at the campground 

Dad went out
there may not be much

but there is a pub
hours later he came back

with two velvet paintings 
he’d blued all their money on

we stopped there a year or so ago 
on a road trip around East Cape

the immense beach choked with driftwood 
the epic wooden pier

there were organised walks 
we didn’t join in

a lack of seabird habitats 
is blamed for the decline 

in this native plant
the rich environments they need 

no longer plentiful enough


(6/2-22/7/21)

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Lepidium oleraceum
[Scurvy Grass]

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