Tulia Jay Moss is a botanical artist and illustrator based in Wellington, New Zealand. Tertiary educated in visual communication design research in the United Kingdom and New Zealand, she has also worked as a tertiary educator in this field in New Zealand.
Her practice is grounded in the time-honoured conventions of botanical illustration and the disciplined technique of watercolour, uniting accuracy with sensitivity.
Through the lens of cultural geography, her work engages with the relationship between culture and its environment, reflecting on introduced species, colonial histories, and the fragility of nature under climate change.
Title of the project
Non-native climbing plants in Aotearoa/New Zealand
About the project
This portfolio presents botanical illustrations of five non-native climbing plants in Aotearoa/New Zealand, emphasising their twining, scrambling, climbing, smothering, and sprawling growth habits.
Beyond documenting biological characteristics, the works examine the relationship between ecological processes and settler motivations for plant introductions. Imported to recreate British gardens or trialled unsuccessfully for horticultural use, these species have reshaped landscapes, disrupted native ecosystems, and influenced cultural identity.
Situated within cultural geography, the illustrations reflect human perceptions of place, historical narratives embedded in landscapes, and the ongoing tension between introduced species—now accelerating under climate change—and indigenous ecologies.
