The table below lists all the species that we found during our survey. They are sorted alphabetically (how else, since it is the Alphabet exclosure) on scientific name. To find the meaning of any abbreviations used (such as BEItaw) look at the first 3 letters of the abbreviation and match them up with the first word in the list below. Sometimes there are several species with that letter combination. In that case, make sure that the last 3 letters match up with the first 3 letters of the second name. I've given the common (European) and Maori names where I could find out what they were.

All the data presented below are summaries of the counts in the quarters. If you are not sure what I mean by quarters, they are squares (numbered A to P) defined by the red lines in this diagram.

There are generally more seedlings and more species of seedling inside the exclosure (where deer can't get them) then outside. The only exception to this is PSEarb (pepperwood, Pseudowintera axillaris) which is relatively unpalatable due to its peppery taste. I am somewhat surprised though to see how few of these pepperwood seedlings make it to sapling stage.

There are no obvious trends in the ferns. Overall, probably slightly more ferns inside the exclosure than outside, but other than that I would hesitate to make many more pronouncements. It could be that the Hymenophyllum species (filmy ferns with leaves only one cell thick) are not very tasty and that could explain the higher numbers there. Mind you, none of us were very good at identifying fern species so we probably misclassified a whole range, and that makes interpreting the data a lot harder.

There were really only 2 liane species. Supplejack, (Ripogonum scandens) which I have talked about before, and a small climbing rata (Metrosideros diffusa) that scrambles up trees and tree ferns. The growing tip of supplejack is quite soft (and tastes like asparagus) but it rapidly becomes much woodier which might explain why the deer don't have a negative impact on it. Not sure why there are more climbing rata plants outside the exclosure, since most had their foliage in browsing range. Maybe the leaves are too close to the trunk, though that is hard to believe seeing that deer can chew bark and on occasion ringbark trees. We did find one bush lawyer vine too.

As we tagged the trees, we also measured their diameters (how wide the tree is) at breast height (over bark, but under lianes and other attachments). In general, the diameter of the trees was much bigger inside the exclosure than outside. The major exception to this is the unpalatable pepperwood, Pseudowintera axillaris, again. Remember that I mentioned that the canopy collapse in the Ruahine ended up with a lowered canopy of pepperwood and leatherwood. The high number of pepperwood seedlings and trees outside the exclosure could portent a collapse in this remnant too. Pseudopanax crassifolia, or lancewood has leathery leaves with serrations like that of a breadknife. I imagine that it could be a chewy and rather unpleasant mouthful too.

Deer are having a negative impact on all the palatable species within the browse tier (30 cm to 2 m).