Nothofagus moorei

Location & distribution maps

Phylogeny & links to associated information:

Wikipedia links:       Angiosperms > Eudicots > Rosids  > Fabids  >  Fagales > Nothofagus  moorei 

Other links:     

Plant  information

Common name:        Antarctic Beech     

Etymology:   

• Nothofagus - from the Greek nothos, meaning false and fagus, referring to the original belief that this genus was related to Northern Hemisphere Beech (Fagus) trees

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Flowers:                  

• The plants have separate male and female flowers that occur on the same tree

• The flowers are small and form inconspicuous clusters near the leaves towards the end of the branches

Fruit:                         

• The fruit, produced from December to February, is a small woody structure of four prickly valves

• Each fruit contains three small winged nuts

Leaves:         

• The leaves are simple and alternate, growing six centimeters long

• The leaf color is dark green, with new growth brilliant red, or orange in spring

• The tree is deciduous in its native environment, but only partially deciduous in warmer areas, dropping half its leaves in autumn

• The leaves are triangular to oblong with fine teeth along the crenate edges

• Many of the trees have multiple trunks emanating from a crown, formed by this root structure

Stem & branches: 

• These trees typically grow to 25 m tall and have large trunks to 1 m in diameter with scaly, dark brown bark

• Maximum height is about 50 m

Roots

• Complicated root structures are frequently exhibited

• These roots would once have been soil-covered, but have been exposed over the ages by erosion, and covered in moss and lichen

Habit:        

• It occurs in wet, fire-free areas at high altitude in eastern Australia

Habitat:   

• It occurs in temperate to cool temperatures and with occasional snowfalls

Distribution:                  

• Grows in cool temperate rainforests from the Barrington Tops plateau in NSW, north to the Lamington Plateau and Springbrook Plateau, in southern Queensland, between altitudes of 480 m and 1550 m

• It achieves its finest development at Werrikimbe National Park and Mount Banda Banda

• There are four known populations of the Antarctic Beech in the Comboyne area of NSW

Additional notes:    

• Nothofagaceae

  • Is an important Gondwana relict of the rainforests of the southern hemisphere. 

  • Is an ancient type of tree, of significance to southern hemisphere botanical distribution

  • Theyare currently found in Chile, Argentina and east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea and New Caledonia

• Taxonomy

  • Ferdinand von Mueller described the Antarctic beech in 1866, from material collected near the Bellinger River by Charles Moore

  • Once referred to as 'negrohead beech', but now as 'Antarctic beech' (not to be confused with its South American relative, Nothofagus antarctica) is an evergreen tree native to the eastern highlands of Australia

  • N. moorei proposed to be renamed Lophozonia moorei in 2013.; the change in name from Nothofagus to Lophozonia is controversial

  • 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

• Reproduction

  • At one time it was believed that the Eastern Australian populations could not reproduce in present-day conditions, except by suckering (asexual reproduction), being remnant forest from a cooler time

  • It has since been shown that sexual reproduction may occur, but distribution in cool, isolated high-altitude environments at temperate and tropical latitudes is consistent with the theory that the species was more prolific in a cooler age

  • The pattern of distribution around the southern Pacific Ocean rim has fed speculation that the dissemination of the genus dates to the time when Antarctica, Australia and South America were connected Gondwana

  • Cultivated specimens tolerate −7 °C

  • Wild plants growing on Barrington Tops have withstood record low temperatures of −17 °C

  • It is slow to recover from fire

Sources of information:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothofagus_moorei (2023)