RE: Flora of New Zealand

New Zealand is in a very different situation in that being a 
very small "island continent" and separated from 
any contact for many millions of years from other continents its 
base of plant and animal life was quite small to start with. 
New Zealand has (had) a most unique 
ecological situation in that  birds filled almost all of the niches that
were normally filled by small vertebrates in other countries.
Such as rats, possums etc. They have the only meat eating parrot 
in the world,  a lovely bird I'm sure Tony and Moira could expand on.

As far as the native flora goes there are more introduced spp. in NZ
than natives. A situation not uncommon for some of the more heavily 
invaded islands of the Pacific but quite disastorous for NZ due to the 
extrordinary numbers of endemic spp. present there.

Western Australia has by contrast about  9,000 spp. of natives
and only 1,200 introduced spp. that have naturalised.

Some parts of the south west here have the heaviest concentrations
of spp. anywhere in the world with 2,500  taxa present in just one small

area of the state called the kwongan (sand plain country north of Perth
near Eneabba)

This spp. diversity is caused by many factors including extremely poor
soils (low nutrient status and little organic matter) a mosaic soil
structure that means plant communities can change several times over
very short distances and of course our low rainfall.  We have also been
spared the development of native spp. that place a huge grazing pressure
on the plant life. Continents such as Africa, Europe, Asia and the
Americas have always had heavy grazing animals such as goats, sheep,
cattle or equivalents.  
Hence the disasterous impact  from the introduction of rabbits, sheep
and cattle with many of our natives being grazed into extinction. Along
the lines of the introduction of rats and possums to NZ and the
dissapearance of many of their native birds that couldn't compete.  

I could go on but I'd better do some work

Cheers, Rod
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Rod Randall
Weed Risk Assessment
Weed Science Group, Agriculture Western Australia

                 "I weed..." 

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 ph: 08 9368 3443
fax: 08 9474 3814
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> ----------
> From: 	K1MIZE@aol.com
> Reply To: 	K1MIZE@aol.com
> Sent: 	Monday, 28 December 1998 11:16 PM
> To: 	medit-plants@ucdavis.edu
> Subject: 	Flora of New Zealand
> 
> I did a little Internet research last night, and was somewhat
> surprised to
> discover that the native flora of New Zealand is rather poor by
> international
> standards (some 2000-2500 species and subspecies of vascular plants),
> although
> rich in endemics (~80% of species).  Some 200 species are considered
> rare and
> endangered.  By way of contrast, California is home to some 6300 taxa
> of
> vascular plants, around 900 of which are considered rare and
> endangered.  
> 
> The very interesting report entitled "The State of New Zealand's
> Environment"
> is by the New Zealand Ministry for the Environment, and can be found
> at
> website:  http://www.mfe.govt.nz/monitoring/report.htm.
> 
> Tecomanthe speciosa, the flowering vine mentioned by Moira Ryan, is
> noted in
> the report.  It was discovered in 1946 (along with another species new
> to
> science, a small tree called Pennantia baylisiana) on the remote Three
> Kings
> Islands group off the tip of the North Island.  When discovered, both
> species
> were down to a single individual.  The vine has proven easy to
> cultivate from
> both cuttings and seeds, and is now common in cultivation.  The
> situation with
> the tree is not so encouraging, because the sole specimen is a female,
> and
> therefore incapable of producing seeds.  
> 
> What is the situation with the native flora in the other mediterranean
> climate
> regions of the world?  I would be interested in hearing from our
> friends
> around the Mediterranean, in South Africa, Australia, and Chile.
> 
> Kurt Mize
> Stockton, California
> USDA Zone 9
>
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