Distribution

At the time of European settlement early last century, conifer broadleaf forest was the most widespread type of vegetation in the North Island (Fig. 1) and also occupied several disjunct areas through the South Island and in Stewart Island. It is believed that before people first set foot in New Zealand about 1100 years ago, conifer broadleaf forest was even more extensive, largely occupying pre-European fire-induced fern and shrubland regions in the North Island and the grasslands and shrublands in the east and south of the South Island. The evidence for this will be reviewed in Chapter 7.

Over the wide latitudinal range of the New Zealand conifer broadleaf forest, from 34 to 47°S (50°S if the southern rata (Metrosideros umbellata) forest of the Auckland Islands is included), the total number of species decreases as one goes from north to south, with a tendency towards an aggregation of southern limits at the middle latitude of the North Island, 38°S, and at 42°S in the northern South Island.