Common name: antarctic beech
Nothofagus moorei (F.Muell.) Krasser APNI*
Description: Evergreen tree to 50 m, often with massive trunk surrounded by basal coppice shoots.
Leaves 2-ranked, ± ovate, usually 3–10 cm long, margins toothed, glossy, ± glabrous, leathery; petiole 3–5 mm long; stipules 8–10 mm long, often reflexed, caducous.
Male flowers formed on the twig below, and maturing before, the female flowers. Male flowers of 16–40 stamens in a cup-shaped involucre, 5–10 mm diam.; shortly pedicellate. Female flowers ± sessile, 3 together and surrounded by an involucre of bracts; ovary 3-locular. Involucre 8–10 mm long and covered by bristly processes in fruit, opens in 4 valves; nuts small, 1 or 2 in each involucre.
Flowering: spring, but not every year.
Distribution and occurrence: Dominant species in cool-temperate rainforest up to 1550 m alt., from Barrington Tops to the McPherson Ra. The timber is of commercial value but is now rare or protected in National Parks.
NSW subdivisions: NC, NT
Other Australian states: Qld
Text by G. J. Harden Taxon concept: Flora of NSW 1 (1990)
APNI* Provides a link to the Australian Plant Name Index (hosted by the Australian National Botanic Gardens) for comprehensive bibliographic data ***The AVH map option provides a detailed interactive Australia wide distribution map drawn from collections held by all major Australian herbaria participating in the Australian Virtual Herbarium project.
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