Features
Paengaroa straddles the Hautapu River near the village of Mataroa, northwest of Taihape in Wanganui.
Covering 107ha, and incorporating another 13ha of Railcorp land, this scenic reserve was made a mainland island in 1990.
Rare species
Some of the plants in Paengaroa are nationally rare or have disjunct distributions (are only found in isolated pockets). These include:
Heart-leaved kohukohu
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Coprosma obconica - known at only one other North island site and a few sites in the South Island;
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Pittosporum obcordatum - heart leaved kohuhu;
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Korthalsella clavata and K lindsayii - two species of dwarf mistletoe;
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Olearia gardnerii - New Zealand's third rarest tree. The country's largest population is found here.
Divaricating plants
Sometimes called inside out plants, these start out as tangly, twiggy plants with small leaves inside the bush. Once they get taller (about 3m high) some change so completely they are hardly recognisable from their earlier form. One theory for these ugly ducklings is that the young, twiggy stage protected the plants from moa grazing.
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