Forest Vines to Snow Tussocks: The Story of New Zealand Plants
Numbers of Species
Numbers of Species
Figure 8 Interior view of conifer broadleaf forest south of Kaitaia, northern North Island. In the foreground are young plants of the nikau palm (Rhopalostylis sapida) and the shrub kawakawa (Macropiper excelsum). A larger nikau is on the right. In the middle distance the shrubs are mostly young plants of the subcanopy tree kohekohe (Dysoxylum spectabile). The trunks to the left belong to the canopy dominant taraire (Beilschmiedia tarairi) and the large, partly obscured trunk at the centre to the emergent northern rata (Metrosideros robusta). Photo: B. V. Sneddon.
In the New Zealand conifer broadleaf forest, tree species are numbered in dozens rather than the hundreds found in tropical rain forest. Some see this as a major difference precluding any suggestion of a close relationship between the two types of forest. However, this conclusion may not be justified — species richness is not the only distinctive feature of tropical rain forest as we shall see.
The conifer broadleaf forest, as the name implies, comprises a mixture of conifers and flowering plants.