Despite being surrounded by former wetlands which have been converted into dairy farms, Te Kinga has been largely untouched. Almost the entire mountain is covered by native forest, with the lower reaches containing large old-growth podocarp trees, including tōtara, rimu, kahikatea and miro. As the altitude increases the vegetation gradually shifts, including larger amounts of species such as kaikawaka, neinei and southern rata. From an altitude of about , the vegetation thins out and gradually shifts to pink pine, followed by the scree slopes and tussock cover typical of alpine environments in New Zealand.
