Pectinopitys ladei

Location & distribution maps

Plant description

Common name:         Mount Spurgeon black pine  

• Also, Mount Spurgeon brown pine, or Mount Spurgeon kauri pine

Conservation status:

Etymology:   

• x

Cones and seed:                            

• x

Leaves:         

• x

Stem & branches: 

• x

Roots:         

• x

Habit:        

• x 

Habitat:   

• x 

Distribution:                  

• x

Additional notes:     

• From The Gymnosperm Database:

• Common names

  • Mount Spurgeon black pine or Mount Spurgeon brown pine.

• Taxonomic notes

  • Type: Australia, Queensland, Mt. Spurgeon, Mitchell River, Port Douglas, F.W.H. Lade, foliage specimens December 1902, immature fruiting specimens May 1905 (syn BRI). Syn: Podocarpus ladei F.M. Bailey 1905 (Farjon 2010).

  • The molecular analysis by Sinclair et al. (2002) considered a subset of taxa from throughout the Podocarpaceae that included 6 species in Prumnopitys sensu latu, representing the genera Pectinopitys, Prumnopitys and Sundacarpus. The 3 species of Pectinopitys, including P. ladei, were in a group sister to a clade containing Prumnopitys and Sundacarpus; Little et al. (2013) obtained a very similar result in a later molecular study. This, along with many points of morphology, constitute Page's (2019) basis for assigning this species to Pectinopitys rather than Prumnopitys.

• Description

  • Trees to 25 m tall. Bark smooth, red-brown, shed in thin scales. Leaves sessile, spirally arranged but secondarily distichous, oblong, 12-16×2.5-4 mm, obtuse, with stomata on both surfaces. Female cone a single scale subtending a seed, not expanding at maturity. Seeds ellipsoidal, to 25 mm long and 15 mm in diameter, purple-black when mature, pruinose (Hill 1998).

  • Distribution and Ecology

  • Australia: Queensland: Atherton Tableland. You can create a highly detailed map, and access specimen data, using the "search" function at the Australia Virtual Herbarium. Known only from remnant primary rainforest on Mt. Spurgeon and Mt. Lewis, where it grows in granite-derived soils at 930-1400 m elevation. The forest is dominated by angiosperms with scattered podocarps that include relatively more common Podocarpus smithii and Sundacarpus amarus (Farjon 2013). Based on data from 10 collection localities, its climate preferences include a mean annual temperature of 21°C, with an average minimum in the coldest month of 12°C, and a mean annual precipitation of 1620 mm (Biffin et al. 2011, Table S5). Zone 10 (cold hardiness limit between -1°C and +4.4°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

  • The IUCN classifies this species as "Vulnerable" to human impacts due to its very limited extent of occurrence (161 km2) and association with primary rainforest. The estimated area of occupancy, based on known collection localities, is ca. 16 km2, and even within that area the tree is very rare and scattered, not in extended stands; the total population would not exceed 1,000 mature trees. Only 2 populations are known, in the vicinity of Mt. Lewis and Mt. Spurgeon. Logging formerly occurred in these areas, but habitat degradation has now ceased, and a large fraction of the remaining area of occurrence is within protected areas (Farjon 2013).

• The Queenslan Gonernment:

  • Species profile—Prumnopitys ladei (Mt. Spurgeon black pine)

  • Classification

  • Plantae (plants) → Equisetopsida (land plants) → Podocarpaceae → Prumnopitys ladei (Mt. Spurgeon black pine)

  • Scientific name

  • Prumnopitys ladei (F.M.Bailey) de Laub.

  • Common name

  • Mt. Spurgeon black pine

  • Superseded by

  • Pectinopitys ladei (05/09/2020)

  • Conservation significant No

  • Endemicity Exotic

Sources of information:

• The Gymnosperm Database: https://www.conifers.org/po/Pectinopitys_ladei.php 

• The Queenslan Gonernment: https://apps.des.qld.gov.au/species-search/details/?id=12372