THE NEW-ZEALAND FLORA - ENTIRELY LONG-DISTANCE DISPERSAL

The present New Zealand flora is popularly seen as a living example of 'Gondwanan' vegetation isolated by sea-floor spreading in the Late Cr etaceous. However, living plants on purely oceanic islands give clear evidence of many New Zealand genera which could have arrived this way. The geology of Norfolk, Lord Howe, Fiji and the Kermadec Islands is r eviewed. They are shown to be oceanic, and their flora therefore dispe rsed. A good palynological record indicates that almost all of New Zea land's flora can be seen to have arrived 'post-drift'. macrofossil rec ord supports this showing complete change since the Late Cretaceous. T hroughout be Tertiary New Zealand's flora had an 'Australian' characte r-the character of the present evergreen forests of New Zealand probab ly does not predate the late Tertiary or early Pleistocene times. The present New Zealand vegetation can not be called 'Gondwanic', either i n character or in the sense that it has evolved in isolation, directly from Gondwana-period lineages. It is probable that the entire forest- flora of New Zealand arrived by long-distance dispersal.