Spenser Mountains

{{Short description|Mountain range in New Zealand}}

{{Use New Zealand English|date=April 2024}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2019}}

{{Infobox mountain

| name=Spenser Mountains

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| photo=Alpine tarn on Lewis Pass in front of Spenser Mountains.jpg

| photo_size =250px

| photo_caption=Alpine tarn on the Lewis Pass in front of the Spenser Mountains

| country=New Zealand

| region_type=Region

| region=Tasman

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| area_km2=

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| highest= Mount Una

| elevation_m=2300

| coordinates={{coord|42|15|S|172|30|E|display=inline,title|region:NZ_type:mountain_source:GNS-enwiki}}

| map=New Zealand

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The Spenser Mountains is a topographic landform in the northern South Island of New Zealand. Located at the southern end of the Nelson Lakes National Park and north of the Lewis Pass they form a natural border between the Canterbury and Tasman regions. Several peaks are named after characters in Edmund Spenser’s allegorical poem, The Faerie Queene. Many of the early explorers were evidently literate men. For example, Frederick Weld (a surveyor) named Lake Tennyson; William Travers (a solicitor) named the Spensers and Faerie Queene; Julius Haast named Mt Una.

Within the range prominent peaks include Mount Una and Mount Humboldt.Thomas Adolphus Bowden and James Hector. 1869 The Spenser Mountains are the northern limit of the glaciers within the Southern Alps.Chinn, Trevor J.H., (1988), [https://books.google.com/books?id=rgElAQAAIAAJ&dq=spenser+mountains+glaciers&pg=SL8-PA25], in Satellite image atlas of glaciers of the world, U.S. Geological Survey professional paper; 1386, {{ISBN|0-607-71457-3}}.

Much of the forest cover is beech/podocarp with understory of a variety of ferns and shrubs; crown fern (Lomaria discolor) is one of the dominant understory ferns.C. Michael Hogan. 2009