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Diels (1897) first put forward a climatic hypothesis for the origin of divaricating plants. This hypothesis has been elaborated by subsequent authors and is further extended herein. In contrast, Greenwood and Atkinson (1977) proposed roposed that the divaricating shrub form evolved as a protection against moa-browsing. These two hypotheses are critically compared and it is concluded that the climatic hypothesis better explains the ecology, distribution and morphology of divaricating plants.

An analysis of New Zealand's vegetation cover is presented, based on vegetation information from the New Zealand Land Resource Inventory. This survey, undertaken between 1973 and 1979, recorded vegetation in homogeneous land inventory map units as part of a physical resource inventory, using a classification of 45 vegetation components covering indigenous and introduced vegetation cover.