New Zealand’s native plants are officially in a minority
December 4th, 2005New Zealand’s native plants are officially in a minority for the first time, out-numbered by wild exotic species.
New Zealand has about 2350 native plant species but exotic plants that have naturalised in the wild now number 2400, according to records from the country’s herbariums, or plant collections.
New plants are added to the collections by botanists, regional councils, Biosecurity New Zealand and the Department of Conservation and it is the first time exotics have outnumbered natives. “It’s just appalling really,” said New Zealand Plant Conservation Network spokesman John Sawyer
