Plant Profiles

The profiles of native plants that are provided below are based on our experience of growing these species and, in most cases, of having viewed them in the wild. It is important to see plants in nature, to gain an understanding of the conditions that have shaped them, and also of the aesthetics of natural plant communities.

The most recent plant profiles to be added, in January 2012, regard a daisy with large yellow flowerheads, called Senecio rufiglandulosus, a white-flowering climbing rata of northern New Zealand, Metrosideros albiflora, one of our two newly-described species of turutu, Dianella latissima, and an exciting discovery of recent years, the critically endangered small tree, Ackama nubicola (as well as the closely related makamaka, Ackama rosifolia).

An upcoming profile will be added, in February 2012, on a popular, threatened species of Hebe (H. speciosa).

How to use these plant profiles

Each page is devoted to one genus (for example, Clematis), and within a single page there may be descriptions of several species - for example, within the page on Clematis, we currently have profiles on six different native species. Bear this in mind if you are interested in a particular species; it may be described in the lower part of the page.

For ease of use, we have separated the plant profiles into distinct categories (such as 'ferns' or 'climbers'), based on the growth habits of certain horticulturally significant members of each genus. These divisions are not always 'hard and fast'; for example, some genera contain both shrubs and climbers. They are simply intended to assist readers in finding information of particular interest to them.

Trees and shrubs

Climbers

Herbs and low-growing shrubs

Flax and lily-like plants

Grasses, sedges and rush-like plants

Ferns

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