Pakihi is a Māori term which has come to refer to areas of poorly drained, infertile land such as this, at the mouth of the Wanganui River in Westland. The vegetation is fire-prone shrubs, ferns, sedges and rushes. The centre is permanently damp, and covered with dense sedge. Tangle fern and wire rush grow further out. Mānuka scrub forms a boundary between the sedgeland and the forest of silver pine and kahikatea.