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Forest Vines to Snow Tussocks: The Story of New Zealand Plants
Other Special Features of the Flora
Other Special Features of the Flora
Other striking and puzzling features of the New Zealand flora will be considered in later chapters. These include:
| (a) | the abundance of specialised growth forms in the conifer broad-leaf forests that are similar to growth forms of tropical forests; |
| (b) | the prevalence of distinct and varied juvenile forms in a number of the forest species; |
| (c) | the local abundance of very small-leaved, densely twiggy, springy, often cushion-like shrubs (divaricating shrubs) belonging to many species and ranging from forest and open lowland habitats to beyond tree line; |
| (d) | specialised alpine growth forms such as cushion plants and scree plants. |
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Figure 6 (opposite) Conifer broadleaf forest. Inland Taranaki, west central North Island.
Photo: J. W. Dawson.