New Zealand Journal of Botany abstracts

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VEGETATION STUDIES ON SECRETARY ISLAND, FIORDLAND PART 11: EPIPHYTIC AND GROUND CRYPTOGAMIC VEGETATION ON THE NORTHERN SLOPES

G. A. M. Scott*

Department of Botany, University of Otago, Dunedin

Abstract The quantitative composition of epiphytic and ground vegetation (excluding vascular plants) is recorded from three stands of lowland forest and one stand of subalpine forest near the NW corner of Secretary Island. Ground vegetation was sampled by local frequency measurements in blocks of 25 one dm² quadrats; the abundance of epiphytic species was estimated visually and then converted to approximate cover values using empirical conversion constants. Lists are also given of species collected from several sources above tree line on Secretary Island and from coastal forest on the adjacent mainland, together with a list of all bryophytes known to occur on the island.The feasibility of pooling data from different stands of forest is discussed; there is no evidence in the Secretary Island data to warrant pooling except between different stems of the same phorophyte species within a stand. Several epiphytes of tree-fern trunks seem to have very strong substrate preferences; otherwise the data are not adequate to establish limits of tolerance of either ground species or epiphytes.The three stands of lowland forest are compared with three stands on Stewart Island which differ chiefly in lacking Nothofagus. The resemblances in crypto-gamic vegetation between the two forests are very strong and the complete species lists from the two islands are also remarkably alike.

(Received for publication 22 September 1969) N.Z. Jl Bot 8: 30-50

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