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GENERAL
FLORA
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"The number of species of plants in the Tongariro National
park and its environs, according to Dr Cockayne, is 260, including
about 30 ferns. Of these, 188, or 72 percent, are endemic, that
is, peculiar to New Zealand; 60, or 23 percent, Australian or
Tasmanian; and 17, or 6.9 percent, South American. The species
peculiar to the Central Province (the region bounded on the north
by latitude 38 deg. and on the south by latitude 42 deg.) number
24. The forest plants number approximately 112, the grass-steppe
59, the shrub-steppe 46, bog and wet ground 48, and the desert
15. There are about 42 true alpine or sub-alpine plants, but Dr
Cockayne remarks that it is hard to draw the line as to what plants
should be so included; all the rest are more or less commom at
comparatively low altitudes". Quoted
from Cowan:
The Tongariro National park. |
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Vegetation
map of Tongariro National Park, from Roots
of Fire
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"In broad terms, lowland podocarp forest mixed
with hardwoods and beech species is found south of Ruapehu around
Ohakune township, below Hauhungatahi and around the northern vents
of Pihanga and Kakaramea. Montane forest, mostly beech species
with some mountain cedar, and pink pine, extends from state highway
48 south to the boundary with Karioi State Forest. Beech forest
is absent north of Whakapapa Village, and patchy on the eastern
side. It appears again on Pihanga and Kakaramea. Hall's totara
forms an isolated forest on the northern flank of Tongariro, as
well as being a member of the podocarp montane forest on the flanks
of Hauhungatahi. Elsewhere, tussock, scrub and bog cover the landscape
to 1250 metres (the normal treeline through much of the park).
Above this altitude a wide range of low alpine and high alpine
communities grow in increasingly exposed and barren habitats.
This alpine zone extends down into the Rangipo Desert to the east
of Ruapehu". Legend
of the Vegetation map, in Roots
of Fire. |
 
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