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A reappraisal of the conservation status of the indigenous New Zealand vascular plant flora is presented using the 2008 version of the threat classification system developed for the New Zealand Department of Conservation. The list comprises 897 taxa (38% of New Zealand's total indigenous vascular flora) in the following categories: Extinct-6 taxa, Threatened-180 taxa (comprising 91 Nationally Critical taxa, 45 Nationally Endangered, and 44 Nationally Vulnerable), At Risk-651 taxa (comprising 83 Declining, 6 Recovering, 20 Relict, and 542 Naturally Uncommon taxa), 25 taxa listed as either Vagrant (12) or Coloniser (13), and 35 as Data Deficient. A further 171 plants are listed as taxonom ically indeterminate, being those which might warrant further conservation attention once their taxonomic status is clarified. Forty-four recognised taxa and 26 plants rated as taxonomically indeterminate, and previously considered to be threatened and/or uncommon, are removed from this updated listing. A brief analysis of the patterns of rarity exhibited by the listed taxa is presented. Overall, the conservation status of the New Zealand indigenous vascular plant flora is worsening, with 7.6% of this flora now regarded as threatened with extinction. A concordance of plants names from the 2004 listing is provided.

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This study aimed to establish the relationship between the prevalence of active trachoma in children, water availability and household water use in a village in Tanzania. Nine hundred and fourteen children aged 1-9 years were examined for signs of trachoma. Data were collected on time taken to collect water, amount of water collected and other trachoma risk factors. In a sub-study, 99 randomly selected households were visited twice daily on two consecutive days to document patterns of water use. The prevalence of active trachoma in the children examined was 18.4% (95% CI 15.9-20.9). Active trachoma prevalence increased with increasing water collection time (OR 2.25; 95% CI 1.13-4.46) but was unrelated to the amount of water collected. In the sub-study, active trachoma prevalence was substantially lower in children from households where more water was used for personal hygiene (P for trend < or =0.01), independent of the total amount of water used. The allocation of water to hygiene was predicted by lower water collection time. The key element in the relationship between water availability and trachoma is the allocation of water within households. Collection time may influence both the quantity of water collected and its allocation within the household.

An annotated vascular flora of 282 taxa for Aorangi Island, Poor Knights Islands, is presented. Additional records (20 taxa) from Tawhiti Rahi Island, the other major island in the archipelago, are listed separately, resulting in a combined Poor Knights vascular flora of 302 taxa. Two new combinations, Wahlenbergia littoricola subsp. vernicosa and Xeronema callistemon f bracteosa, are made for plants previously treated as W. vernicosa and X. callistemon var. bracteosa, respectively. Only one taxon, Xeronema callistemon f. bracteosa, is provisionally accepted as endemic to the Poor Knights Islands. The control of the more serious weed species on the island is discussed. A case is made for including the Mokohinau Islands within the Poor Knights Ecological Region.