Mountain beech-red beech forest occurs in the northern Ruahine Range, inland Marlborough, and inland parts of North Canterbury south to the Waimakariri River.

These beech forests contain red beech in abundance at lower elevations, but as slopes begin to get to the tree line, mountain beech becomes dominant. Hall’s tōtara and kaikawaka are both present in low numbers, although kaikawaka is more restricted in distribution.

The projected natural range of mountain beech-red beech forest across Aotearoa is 390,139 hectares.

More about Beech forests (in general) can be found here.

Common native species, photos courtesy of NZ Plant Conservation Network: