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Story: Grasslands

Iced leaves

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Iced leaves

These tussock leaves are iced-up after a harsh frost. Tussocks have so many leaves that their total surface area can be very large. The water droplets in fog can be intercepted by the long fine leaves of a tussock, capturing a considerable amount of water. Two-thirds of Dunedin’s water supply comes from the 20,882-hectare Te Papanui Park on the Lammerlaw Range in eastern Otago, where billions of tussock leaves are capturing water from fog.

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Department of Conservation

Reference: 10060216

by Astrid van Meeuwen-Dijkgraaf

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How to cite this page

Alan F. Mark, Grasslands – Human impact, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/13363/iced-leaves (accessed 25 June 2026).

Story by Alan F. Mark, published 1 March 2009.