| Antarctic beech | |
|---|---|
 | |
| New South Wales,Australia | |
Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Rosids |
| Order: | Fagales |
| Family: | Nothofagaceae |
| Genus: | Nothofagus |
| Subgenus: | Nothofagussubg. Lophozonia |
| Species: | N. moorei |
| Binomial name | |
| Nothofagus moorei | |
| Synonyms[2] | |
Nothofagus moorei, commonly known asAntarctic beech,[3] is a species of flowering plant in the familyNothofagaceae that isendemic to high altitude areas of eastern Australia. It is a tree, withsimple leathery, glossy, egg-shaped to lance-shaped leaves,
Nothofagus moorei is a tree that typically grows to a height of up to 50 m (160 ft), often with a massive trunk up to 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) in diameter, withsuckers at the base. The leaves aresimple, more or less egg-shaped to elliptic or lance-shaped, mostly 30–100 mm (1.2–3.9 in) long, glossy, leathery and more or lessglabrous on apetiole 3–5 mm (0.12–0.20 in) long. New leaves in spring are reddish-brown to red. Male flowers are in rounded or flattened clusters about 10 mm (0.39 in) in diameter, with up to three flowers with a total of 15 to 40stamens surrounded by 8 to 12bracts, forming a cup-shaped structure. Female flowers are in oval clusters of three about 5 mm (0.20 in) long, and are more or lesssessile, surrounded by aninvolucre of bracts. Flowering occurs in spring, but not every year, and the fruit is a pricklycupule 8–10 mm (0.31–0.39 in), containing one or twonuts.[3][4]
Nothofagus moorei was first formally described in 1866 byFerdinand von Mueller who gave it the nameFagus moorei in hisFragmenta Phytographiae Australiae, from material collected near theBellinger andMacleay Rivers byCharles Moore.[5][6] In 1896,Fridolin Krasser transferred the species toNothofagus asN. moorei.[7] Thespecific epithet (moorei) honours the collector of thetype specimens.[4]
Within the genus, it is part of a lineage of three evergreen species, the other two being silver beech (N. menziesii) of New Zealand and myrtle beech (N. cunninghamii) of Tasmania and Victoria.[8]
Antarctic beech grows incool temperaterainforests from theBarrington Tops plateau inNew South Wales, north to theLamington Plateau andSpringbrook Plateau, in southernQueensland, between altitudes of 480 m and 1550 m.[3][9] It occurs in temperate to cool temperatures and with occasional snowfalls. Antarctic beech achieves its finest development atWerrikimbe National Park andMount Banda Banda.[10]
There are four known populations of the Antarctic beech in theComboyne area ofNew South Wales.[11] In 1925, the botanist E.C. Chisholm wrote that the Antarctic Beech at Comboyne was "extremely rare, although many trees were undoubtedly destroyed during clearing." The Comboyne Plateau was mostly cleared between 1900 and 1925.[12][13]
The Comboyne plateau is ascarp-boundedpaleoplain located between theMid North Coast of New South Wales and theGreat Dividing Range.Miocenebasalts overlie much of the plateau,creating relatively fertile red/brownsoils.[14]
In the southern third of the plateau are underlyingTriassic sediments of the Lorne basin.[11] The plateau has a wet, sub tropical climate,[15] though subject to frost and occasional snow.
The population at Comboyne was considered likely to be extinct by the scientific community, until published in 1994 by the botanistsBale andWilliams. This community of trees regenerates well from seed and is notablyvagile, with many young plants.[11]
It is the only other lowland (as low as 570 metres) population known, with those found nearDorrigo, to the north. The rainforest botanistAlexander Floyd considers the Comboyne examples of the Antarctic Beech, as part of the cool temperate sub type 49, of the rainforests of New South Wales.[16]
At one time it was assumed that theEastern Australian populations of this tree could not reproduce in present-day conditions, except bysuckering (asexual reproduction), being remnant forest from a cooler time. It has since been shown thatsexual reproduction may occur, but distribution in cool, isolated high-altitude environments attemperate andtropicallatitudes is consistent with the theory that the species was more prolific in a cooler age.[17] Thepattern of distribution around the southernPacific Ocean rim dates the dissemination of the genus to the time whenAntarctica, Australia andSouth America were connected, the theoretical common land-mass referred to asGondwana.[18]
It is an ornamental tree and cultivated specimens tolerate −7 °C (19 °F), though wild plants growing onBarrington Tops have withstood record low temperatures of −17 °C (1 °F), no source provenance have been selected from there and other mountains, highlands or plateaus for cultivation.[19]
Nothofagus moorei is listed as "vulnerable" by theIUCN[1] and as of "least concern" under the Queensland GovernmentNature Conservation Act 1992.[20]
NB:Nothofagus antarctica, native to southernChile andArgentina, is also referred to as "Antarctic beech".
