Ellis Rowan was an artist, explorer, naturalist and self-proclaimed ‘flower hunter’ who taught herself botanical illustration. She travelled throughout Australia, Asia and North America from the 1870s until the 1920s documenting wildflowers, birds and insects in their natural settings. In the late 1880s, she embarked on an ambitious expedition to document and illustrate the complete flora of Queensland. Rowan probably painted this watercolour at this time, and it is likely one of the paintings she exhibited in the Centennial International Exhibition in Melbourne in 1888, for which she received significant praise.