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Browse the 1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand
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Graphic: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand 1966.

Warning

This information was published in 1966 in An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand, edited by A. H. McLintock. It has not been corrected and will not be updated.

Up-to-date information can be found elsewhere in Te Ara.

FLORA, ALPINE

Contents


Some Characteristics

The plants of mountain areas have certain characteristics which enable them to withstand extremes of climatic conditions. In sunshine the stony ground may become hot though the water beneath is icy cold; frosts may occur at all seasons of the year and perhaps last for several days, while periods of drought or of rain and mist, together with strong winds and the constant breaking of rocks on mountain screes, combine to produce an unstable habitat. So the plants found are those which can exist for a period without supplies of fresh water or which have very long root systems capable of penetrating far into the ground to reach water. Many have a mat or cushion form of growth able to withstand winds as well as frost and snow. The leaves may be tough and leathery or thick and fleshy (in which water is stored), and most of them have a dense covering of hairs on one or both surfaces, thereby checking the rate of transpiration. In that interesting group of Hebes known as the whipcords, the leaves are reduced to close-set scales on thin, hard stems. Many plants which grow erect in other situations are, in exposed habitats, prostrate shrubs, mats, or have rosette forms.