Pherosphaera fitzgeraldi

Wikipedia links:       Gymnosperms > Cupressales > Podocarpaceae  > Pherosphaera fitzgeraldi

Other links:     

Common name:         Dwarf mountain pine

• Also, Blue Mountains pine 

Conservation status: Critically endangered

• Only 7 populations, containing a total of 455 individual plants are known

• This conifer may be threatened by habitat loss, due to increased urbanization on the plateau

• In the past hundred years, stream water quality has deteriorated, due to urban sprawl in the Blue Mountains

• However, the population of Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii seems to have been stable over the last fifty years

Etymology:   

Cones and seed:                              

Leaves:         

• Has tiny narrow leaves 2 or 3 mm in length

Stem & branches: 

• The branchlets droop 

Roots:         

Habit:        

• It grows as a small shrub to 1 m high

Habitat:   

•  The entire natural habitat is in the Blue Mountains, from Katoomba to Wentworth Falls, growing almost exclusively in the splash zones of waterfalls, and on the southern aspect of sandstone nearby

Distribution:                  

• It is found only in NSW

Additional notes:     

• Taxonomy

  • It was first described by Ferdinand von Mueller in his 1881 work Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae as Dacrydium fitzgeraldii, naming it after its collector, one R. Fitzgerald

  • It was renamed Microstrobos fitzgeraldii by Lawrie Johnson and Garden in 1951, and Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1882