Auckland Botanic gardens

Plants are described as “endemic” to an area when they are only found in that area. A plant may have a range so small it is endemic just to one mountain or one island, or so large that it is endemic to a whole country. Describing endemism to the scale of a regional/local council or unitary authority is useful for Councils who manage biodiversity just in that one area they have jurisdiction over. Plants only found in one region are usually identified by Council’s in case any development, or change of management, impacts upon them. This also means when Council boundaries change, as they did in the Auckland Supercity transition in 2010, so does the list of endemic plants. Pale-flowered kūmarahou (Pomaderris hamiltonii) was once on the list of plants endemic to Auckland but now the Miranda part of its range is in the Waikato.

We have five of the eleven plants endemic to Auckland growing at Auckland Botanic Gardens: Myosotis pansa subsp. pansa, Veronica bishopiana, Veronica jovellanoides, Veronica pubescens subsp. sejuncta and Kunzea sinclairii.

Table 1. List of plants endemic to the Auckland Council’s boundary

* We haven’t listed the lichens, mosses or liverworts.