Here are 5 white native flowers in New Zealand. These are some common native white flowers that you’ll see in the wilds of New Zealand.
I love hiking all across the world and one of my favourite things to encounter when hiking is a meadow full of wildflowers. In the US, I loved heading up to high alpine meadows covered in flowers in summer. Well, here in New Zealand there simply aren’t that huge number of colourful wildflowers. There are a variety of reasons for this, such as the islands being covered in forest originally and few pollinators. There may not be those same meadows of native wildflowers, but there are still quite a few small, white flowers that are a delight to see.
5 White Native Flowers In New Zealand
Heketara – This is a type of tree daisy. Heketara is a small tree that blooms in the springtime. The flowers grow in clusters of small daisy like flowers (white with a yellow centre).
Mountain Foxglove – This is a lovely native flower that grows in the subalpine areas. It is nice to come across some of these flowers when hiking up mountains in New Zealand.
The flowers grow at the top of a 60 cm tall stalk. There are a handful of small, white flowers in the form of a circle.
Bush Clematis or Puawhananga – This is another beautiful white flower that pops up in the forest during springtime. This is a climbing plant that can be found across the North Island and along the coasts of the South Island. You will see this as a splash of white colour high up in the canopy or draped over some shrubs.
Easter Orchid – This is a small orchid that is common on trees and rocks across both the North and South Islands. It grows in lowland and mountain forests and is the most common of many epiphytic orchids.
It has long, narrow leaves (up to 120mm). The flowers are white with yellow or orange on the inside. It’s called the easter orchid because it usually flowers around easter (March – April).
Manuka – this is a common native tree/shrub that grows throughout the country. This native plants has a variable growth pattern – sometimes growing like a small tree and other times like a shrub. This is closely related to and similar to kanuka (check out this other post to compare Manuka and kanuka).
Manuka has small flowers that are most often white, but sometimes that can be tinted a bit pink. The flowers grow individually, but there can be heaps of them on the plant at a time. The flowers are 8 – 15 mm in diameter and have 5 petals.