Vegetation and flora are described for some 225 km 2 of Tertiary calcareous rocks that form plateaux and hill country in western Nelson. The areas are between c. 800 and 1500 m above sea level and have a cool, wet, windy climate. Twenty-three vegetation units are described, ranging from Nothofagus spp. forests, through Chionochloa spp. tussocklands, to openlands with <20% vegetative cover. Their relationship to landscapes and soils is presented. Calcicoles are found only on skeletal soils on limestone. The 489 indigenous gymnosperms, lycopods, ferns and flowering plants are listed. Only 11 are considered to be strong cap cicoles. Notes on distribution, putative hybrids, taxonomic considerations, and other observations are made.

Published names of tephra formations and members are arranged in chronological order, with estimated ages, distribution, and a statement of their mineralogical composition. The clay minerals in surface soils and in buried paleosols derived from them are listed, and the surface soils are classified.The sources of the tephras are mapped, with the 30 em isopachs of tephras that occur within 45 em of the surface and the 15 em isopachs of tephras found between 45 and 100 em from the surface also shown.The sequence of tephras that are likely to be found within 45 em from the surface is indicated, also, areas of recent soils from volcanic ash, and a suggested boundary between yellow-brown pumice soils and yellow-brown loams.

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Landscapes and soils are described for some 225 km 2 of plateaux and hill country on Tertiary calcareous rocks in western Nelson. The landscapes lie between c. 800 and 1500 m above sea level, and have a cool, wet climate. They have been differentiated into three Landscape Units: the Matiri Range unit for the mudstone hill and steep land; the Matiri Tops unit for the limestone plateaux and remnants; and the Matiri Valley unit for the scarp and debris slopes.Bedrock lithology ranges from limestone to mudstone. The thick soils on gently undulating to easy rolling slopes on either limestone or mudstone have mottled, grey, heavy textured, very poorly drained subsoils. Thin soils on limestone have near neutral pH values in horizons just above the parent rock, but strongly acid pH values in their topsoils. They are high country gley soils. On moderately steep slopes, soils have mottled, yellowish brown, heavy textured, imperfectly drained, strongly acid subsoils; they are strongly gleyed, strongly leached high country yellow-brown earths. On steep slopes, skeletal soils are very thin, non-mottled, grey, heavy textured, and moderately well drained. Skeletal soils on limestone have near neutral pH values.

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