Many threatened species are habitat specialists and loss of habitat has been a key factor causing their decline. Protection of threatened plants tends to offer different challenges to protection of threatened animals, because individual plants cannot move away in the face of disturbance and are killed when habitat is destroyed. Plantation forestry offers great potential for protection, enhancement and restoration of threatened plant populations, particularly where it accommodates indigenous components in set-aside areas such as wetlands, riparian margins, and existing stands of native forest. Most threatened plant species are unlikely to persist within planted areas, but for some species of open habitats, or that exploit natural disturbance, the disturbance regime associated with periodic harvesting may be helpful, if aggressively colonising weeds can be controlled. For most, however, protection of specific sites will be needed. Protection of rare plants at these sites may also be compatible with use for recreation, amenity, landscape values, and catchment protection.

A key requirement for protection of threatened plant species is their recognition. This will frequently require expert knowledge. While this guide aims to assist forest managers to recognise threatened species, detailed species descriptions are outside its scope. None the less, knowledge of a species’ distribution and habitat should allow managers to match site characteristics to the requirements of particular threatened species and ask whether that species might be present at their site. The key features listed in this guide may then be sufficient to identify the species. If in doubt, a photograph or small sample can be taken. Expert help can be sought from botanists in Department of Conservation, botanical consultants, Crown Research Institutes, or the botanical societies that exist in most regions. Even if the species is not present, identification of suitable habitat may enable translocation and establishment of a new population.

The threatened plant section of this guide divides threatened plants into groups based on life form (tree, shrub, herb, fern) and then habitat (wetland, shrubland, forest) within each life form. The regional map shows which threatened species occur in each area.