Impacts on forests of infrequent disturbance events such as floods are not well understood in New Zealand. An extreme flood event in February 2004, Beilschmiedia tawa (tawa Lauraceae) initiated extensive mortality, studied via control and flooded plots in McPherson's Reserve, Turakina Valley. Canopy cover in Flooded plots reduced to Dacrycarpus dacrydioides were common post‐flood, but recruitment was poor, due to disturbance‐f...

Urban areas are an important conduit for alien invaders. A floristic study was made of the spontaneously occurring plant species of 11 towns in the lower North Island. Four hundred and eighty‐three species were found, from 93 families. Viola sepincula and Sarcococca ruscifolia are recorded as naturalised for the first time. Only Poa annua occurred in > 50% of plots. The majority of species originated from Eurasia and the Medit...

Big Hellfire Dune on the western coast of Stewart Island/Rakiura, New Zealand, is an unusual dune climbing 220 m in altitude on the Ruggedy Range, to dissipate on the leeward side of Hellfire Pass. To record vegetation and environmental characters we ran six transects parallel to the coast, at 50‐m altitudinal intervals up the dune. Topography reflected substrate and sand deposition patterns. Wind speed was higher further up t...