"On the basis of field surveys from the north and north-west beaches, the vegetation of Henderson Island can be classified into 11 : 2 in littoral environments with sandy substrates, 4 on rocky coasts and 5 associated with the limestone plateau. Apart from the cutting of by , the communities are remarkably undisturbed, with only 5 adventive species recorded. ... The study of the vegetation communities of Henderson Island is of both great interest and importance. Henderson's vegetation is of interest in a regional context, first, , because of the island's remoteness in the south-east Pacific Ocean (Fosberg 1984) and secondly, because its floristic composition reflects a relatively rare stage in the continuum of vegetation types, controlled by increasing elevation above sea level, from the motus of sea-level atolls to the 'high' islands of Polynesia constructed from both volcanic rocks and limestones (Sachet 1985). In addition, Henderson's vegetation is of great significance to the wider debate on the structure and function of island ecosystems both past and present. As a result of the island's isolation, unsuitability for sustained human habitation and lack of economic phosphate deposits, the vegetation of Henderson Island has survived Polynesian and successive Western impacts (with only 5 introduced plant species) and provides an almost unique glimpse of the natural vegetation cover of a former atoll and lagoon well-raised above present sea level ... Furthermore, the continued removal of the natural vegetation communities of fragile tropical {[w|Island ecology|island ecosystems}} makes the field study of locations such as Henderson doubly important (Fosberg et al. 1983, Fosberg 1985b)."