Prumnopitys ladei

(F.M. Bailey) de Laubenfels 1978

Common names

Mount Spurgeon black pine or Mount Spurgeon brown pine.

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Podocarpus ladei F.M. Bailey 1905 (Hill 1998); see also de Laubenfels (1978). The type specimen was collected by F.W.H. Lade from Mt. Spurgeon, Mitchell River, Queensland, December 1902.

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 rainforests of Mt. Spurgeon and Mt. Lewis, where it grows in granite-derived soils at 1000-1200 m elevation (Hill 1998). 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 species occurs in a state forest reserve. Conservation status is classified as "lower risk - conservation dependent" (Conifer Specialist Group 1998).

Big tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Citations

Conifer Specialist Group 1998. Prumnopitys ladei. In: IUCN 2009. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2009.2. www.iucnredlist.org, accessed 2009.11.09.

See also

Bailey, F.M. 1905. Podocarpus ladei. Queensland Agricultural Journal 15:899.