Latest Assessment of the New Zealand indigenous vascular flora published
Periodically the conservation status of groups of organisms are reviewed to stay abreast of changes both positive and negative. After some years of careful work, a team* of dedicated plant experts have released the latest assessment for indigenous vascular flora. The panel considered a range of submissions from individuals, regional threat assessments, and opinions derived from gatherings of botanists assembled by panel members from their respective areas.
The panel assessed the conservation status of 2844 taxa of indigenous vascular plants in Aotearoa New Zealand using the New Zealand Threat Classification System (NZTCS). In total, 6 taxa (0.2%) were assessed as being Extinct, 409 (14.4%) as Threatened, 930 (32.7%) as At Risk, 1350 (47.4%) as Not Threatened and 33 (1.2%) as Non-resident Native. A further 116 taxa (4.1%) were assessed as Data Deficient (i.e. insufficient information was available to assess their conservation status). Of the taxa assessed in this report, 339 (11.9%) have not been formally described and/or named.
The results of that assessment have now been published as number 43 in the New Zealand Threat Classification Series (available here)
). The data can be downloaded on the NZTCS database here).
* Peter J. de Lange, Jane Gosden, Shannel P. Courtney, Alexander J. Fergus, John W. Barkla, Sarah M. Beadel, Paul D. Champion, Rowan Hindmarsh-Walls, Troy Makan and Pascale Michel
Posted: 01/10/2024