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Story: Waikato region

Waikato vegetation

  • Vegetation

  • Landforms

  • Highways

  • Districts

  • Place names

Waikato’s vegetation was markedly changed by Pākehā. The forest, fernland and swamp vegetation of the mid-19th century has been almost completely removed, and Waikato is now dominated by exotic pasture. Extensive indigenous forest is now found mainly on ranges and mountains. In the south-east of the region there are exotic forests first planted in the 1920s and 1930s, near a much larger tract of plantation forest on the Volcanic Plateau between Rotorua and Taupō.

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How to cite this page

Nancy Swarbrick, Waikato region – Plants and animals, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/interactive/27057/waikato-vegetation (accessed 23 June 2026).

Story by Nancy Swarbrick, published 26 May 2010, updated 1 July 2015.