For the love of words

A crossword to put your mind to.

Across

1 Some dig this activity – others may cut back! (9) 6 Botanically, “the edible body flowering plants use to disseminate seeds” (5)

9 Bears, swallows, etc? (7)

10 Observed (or if treated as two words, a description of a lukewarm drink?) (7)

11 A daisy-like flower – from the Ancient Greek for “star” (5) 12 “Where did you get the 6 across, Holmes?” “A ____ ___, my dear Watson!” (5,4)

13 An apprentice or scholar (7)

14 A marsh plant also known as bulrush, cumbungi, raupo, etc (7) 16 Remove pen marks from a whiteboard, for example (4,3)

19 A large 6 across associated with autumn; may be used as a term of endearment (7)

21 The practice of cartography (9)

23 An approach to various things, for example a pole vault or an election (3-2)

25 The region of NZ where Helen Clark and Jacinda Ardern were born (7)

26 Hostility (“Shakespeare is unwell!” ?) (3,4)

27 Flowers often said to be red for rhyming purposes (5) 28 Overcomes (sounds like a knight getting on his horse, perhaps) (9)

Down

1 A fruit cultivated in Peru as early as 2500 BCE; now India is the main producer (5)

2 Soft Italian cheese (literally meaning “recooked”) (7)

3 An artificial language loosely based on words common to all European languages (9)

4 Narrowly restricted in outlook or scope (7)

5 Relating to DNA (7)

6 A traditional Japanese style of bedding (5)

7 A genus of flowering plants known colloquially as gambier, cat’s claw or uña de gato (7)

8 To be fixated on something (2,5,2)

13 A machine for those who don’t like letting the grass grow (4,5) 15 The tree tomato; also the name of a prize-winning horse cloned in 2013 (9)

17 Flowers treated as symbols of remembrance for fallen soldiers (7)

18 Edible greenish 6 acrosses often grown in NZ (also called the “pineapple 1 down”) (7)

19 More like one of the main characters in “Lord of the Flies,” perhaps? (7)

20 Relating to the author of the “Critique of Pure Reason” (7) 22 Accumulate, collect, gather, hoard, etc (5)

24 Trees, or part of your hands? (5)