New Zealand

New Zealand sits 1,600 kilometres east of Australia, two long islands strung north–south through the cool South Pacific. The Southern Alps run almost the full length of the South Island, with Aoraki / Mount Cook reaching 3,724 metres; Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers spill down to within a few kilometres of the rainforest coast. The North Island carries the country's active volcanoes — Ruapehu, Tongariro, Taranaki — and the warmest, most subtropical climate, while Stewart Island / Rakiura sits at the southern end with subantarctic moss and tussock.

The climate is overwhelmingly temperate oceanic — long, cool, wet, and windy — with subtropical conditions in the far north (Kermadec Islands, Northland) and subantarctic conditions in the offshore southern islands. Most of the country supports forest, but its composition is unusually distinct. About 82 per cent of New Zealand's vascular plants are endemic, a consequence of long isolation since the Zealandia microcontinent split from Gondwana some 80 million years ago.

Three dominant forest types do most of the work. Podocarp-broadleaf forest — rimu (Dacrydium cupressinum), tōtara (Podocarpus totara), kahikatea (Dacrycarpus dacrydioides), miro, and mataī — was the original cover of most lowlands. Southern beech forest (Nothofagaceae — Lophozonia menziesii, Fuscospora cliffortioides, F. fusca, F. solandri, F. truncata) takes over on poorer soils and at higher altitudes. In the northern North Island, kauri (Agathis australis) forms massive, slow-growing Araucariaceae stands that once covered the Coromandel and Northland — the giants at Waipoua Forest are among the largest trees on Earth. Above the treeline, alpine herbfields carry Aciphylla speargrasses, Celmisia mountain daisies, Veronica (formerly Hebe) shrubs, and dense cushion plants. Tree ferns (Cyathea, Dicksonia) are everywhere in the wetter forests — the silver fern (Cyathea dealbata) is a national emblem.

Many of the country's signature plants are also part of Māori daily life and language — harakeke (Phormium tenax, New Zealand flax), tī kōuka (Cordyline australis, cabbage tree), pōhutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa), and mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium, source of mānuka honey). The Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch botanic gardens hold the institutional reference collections.