New Zealand's long geological isolation means that most of its flora is unique. There are a wide variety of native trees, adapted to all the various micro-climates in New Zealand. The native bush (forest) ranges from the subtropical Kauri forests of the northern North Island, temperate rainforests of the West Coast, the alpine forests of the Southern Alps and Fiordland to the coastal forests of the Abel Tasman National Park and the Catlins.
In the early period of British colonisation, many New Zealand trees were known by names derived from the names of unrelated European trees, but more recently the trend has been to adopt the native Māori language names into English. For a listing in order of Māori name, with species names for most, see the Flora of New Zealand list of vernacular names.
The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network has published a list of New Zealand indigenous vascular plants including all 574 native trees and shrubs. This list also identifies which trees are endemic to New Zealand and which are threatened with extinction.
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, trees, native and/or zealand:
“The advice of their elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935)
“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“A lake is the landscape’s most beautiful and expressive feature. It is earth’s eye; looking into which the beholder measures the depth of his own nature. The fluviatile trees next the shore are the slender eyelashes which fringe it, and the wooded hills and cliffs around are its overhanging brows.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Boys dream of native girls who bring breadfruit,
Whatever they are....”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“Teasing is universal. Anthropologists have found the same fundamental patterns of teasing among New Zealand aborigine children and inner-city kids on the playgrounds of Philadelphia.”
—Lawrence Kutner (20th century)