Friends of Flora - Community helping Conservation

Biodiversity in the Flora Stream area

The Flora Stream area of Kahurangi National Park is situated at an average elevation of approximately 800 metres. The northern flanks of Mount Arthur 1795m and also Mounts Lodestone and Hodder feed the catchment area.

Silver, Red and Black Beech (Nothofagus species) are the dominant canopy trees. Along the Flora Stream other common species are Olearia cheesemanii, Melicytus ramiflorus (mahoe), Coprosma grandifolia and several hebe species.

On the Mount Arthur track Dracophyllum traversii is very common. Mountain cedar (Libocedrus bidwillii), Archeria traversii and Olearia lacunosa, are also present.

Above the bush line a myriad of Kahurangi’ s alpine plants are on display, including numerous celmisia’s (mountain daisy), Spaniard and hebes, including Hebe albicans (Mount Arthur hebe). In summer gentians and willow herbs, to name just a few, add to the variety.

The Flora catchment has a number of New Zealand's native bird species. Ten of them are named as our 'indicator' birds, meaning they are the birds used within our monitoring data so as to follow whether the numbers are increasing as a result of our trapping protection. These are the bellbird, grey warbler, tomtit, rifleman & robin, and the larger birds; kaka, weka, kakariki, falcon and blue duck. In addition, there are many others species present including tui and kea. We have been rewarded in recent times with bird numbers noticeably rising.

It is the hope of Friends of Flora to reintroduce the great spotted kiwi back into the Flora, sometime in the future, after many years absence.

There are many species of invertebrates in the area, including the giant North West Nelson Weta. Also present in numbers is the giant carnivorous land snail, a species of Powelliphanta.