Kahikatea swamp forest - Lake Brunner - West Coast - New Zealand
Lake Brunner on the South Island's West Coast is surrounded on many sides by temperate rainforest, the tallest of which are the rimu and the kahikatea. The kahikatea is a wetland specialist with buttressed roots to give it stability in wet ground and it can happily survive being drowned for periods of the year when water levels are high. In some areas the dense mat formed by this swamp forest actually floats until the trees are large and heavy enough to anchor the mass to the ground. Introduced willows have become an invasive pest in these wetlands choking the waterways and out-competing the native plants for space and nutrients. Extensive poisoning of these willows has left a surreal landscape of drowned, dead trees.
Kahikatea swamp forest - Lake Brunner - West Coast - New Zealand
Lake Brunner on the South Island's West Coast is surrounded on many sides by temperate rainforest, the tallest of which are the rimu and the kahikatea. The kahikatea is a wetland specialist with buttressed roots to give it stability in wet ground and it can happily survive being drowned for periods of the year when water levels are high. In some areas the dense mat formed by this swamp forest actually floats until the trees are large and heavy enough to anchor the mass to the ground. Introduced willows have become an invasive pest in these wetlands choking the waterways and out-competing the native plants for space and nutrients. Extensive poisoning of these willows has left a surreal landscape of drowned, dead trees.