The Nelson Coast temperate forests cover the top of New Zealand's South Island, spanning the Tasman and West Coast regions across the flanks of the Paparoa Range and neighbouring mountains. Southern beech (Nothofagus) dominates the drier eastern ridges, while podocarp rainforests in the wetter west carry northern rata (Metrosideros robusta), karaka (Corynocarpus laevigatus), and the nikau palm (Rhopalostylis sapida). The climate is temperate and maritime, with high rainfall on the west-facing slopes giving way to a more sheltered, drier eastern side fringed by golden sand beaches. Despite its modest size, the region holds about half of New Zealand's roughly 2,450 plant species and shelters the great spotted kiwi, with much of it protected within Kahurangi, Paparoa, and Abel Tasman national parks. For gardeners, several signature natives here, including the nikau palm, northern rata, and karaka, are valued ornamentals in suitably mild, moist climates.

At a glance

About the temperate broadleaf & mixed forests biome

Four-season forests of deciduous hardwoods — oak, maple, beech — often mixed with conifers, shaped by warm summers and cold winters. Trees leaf out in spring and color in autumn; the generally fertile soils have made these forests heavily settled and farmed.

Catalog plants suited to this ecoregion

Computed from each plant's stated USDA zone range against this ecoregion's CHELSA-derived current zone range, with the CHELSA mid-century warming delta applied for the projection. Plants whose stated range falls outside both the current and projected zone end up dropped; the rest land in one of the three buckets below.

Collections for this ecoregion

No curated collection's plants all fit this ecoregion's zone range. We surface a collection only when every member would grow here — partial fits get filtered out rather than mislead. As the catalog and the curated set both grow, this section will fill in.

Related ecoregions