The Mac and Marje Russell Collection

Leatherwoods Southern Beeches [Nothofagus] - rainforests in the cold

Leatherwood is the single most important nectar plant in The beech family [Fagaceae] Tasmania, accounting for about 70% of all honey produced. - oaks, beeches and southern It has also been cut for timber to be used as a veneer, for tool beeches - forms part of our handles and railway sleepers. Plumwood [Eucryphia moorei] collections. This family also has members in the tropics. Nothofagus gunnii in fruit Many Tasmanians are familiar with the two local species of these summer flowering trees and shrubs. Another three species occur in eastern Australia’s Species of Nothofagus, or false beech, cool, wetter forests and two more in South America. are found in an arc around the southern tanglefoot ocean; southern South America, New [Nothofagus in autumn The common name ‘leatherwood’ is probably derived from the waxy, Zealand, Australia (including Tasmania), gunnii] at Crater Lake, in summer leather-coloured sheath that covers young leaves and petals, but may also New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea, Tasmania come from the toughness of the timber. Of the two types of leatherwood in representing their ancient distribution Tasmania, Eucryphia lucida is the most common, and the most important to in Gondwana. the leatherwood honey industry. All have seed similar to the northern Two Australian species have only recently been described, one from the hemisphere beech [Fagus]. A few Atherton Tableland and another from the Qld/NSW border, both areas species are deciduous and several being refuges for some plants in this interglacial period. have large leaves like the beech. However, the majority of species found Fossils of extinct species have been found in parts of their current range as in the warmer areas, are evergreen. well as in Antarctica and New Zealand. These plants occur naturally in cool Some were deciduous in earlier colder high rainfall areas, which may be an indication of the type of climate once climate regimes. prevailing where their fossils are now found. Nymans Eucryphia Unique to Tasmania, the deciduous Flowering occurs in the warmer months when the native insect pollinators beech [Nothofagus gunnii], also known are active in what is usually a drier period. Seed takes about ten months to as fagus or tanglefoot, is the only mature. temperate deciduous tree occuring naturally in Australia. The leaves turn a The species cross-breed readily when planted together, producing an golden yellow in late April. This species Hand rail made from interesting range of leaf forms and flowers, varying from the grows only in wetter, high altitude Nothofagus leatherwood gunnii common white to shades of pink. This hybridization was Ulmo [Eucryphia forests that are free of fire. Its closest noticed in English and Irish gardens where cordifolia] relative among the southern beeches they were first grown together. Red beech is Nothofagus antarctica that grows in [Nothofagus fusca] southern South America. The Arboretum’s collection is at Nothofagus the bottom of Nothofagus moorei fruits The similarities and differences of Avenue. Groups of species and some of the cool temperate species hybrids are also in geographic of southern beech can be seen in antarctic collections. You cannot miss Nothofagus Avenue, one of oldest beech [Nothofagus them when they are flowering. leatherwood plantings, just up the hill from here. moorei] in full bloom

leatherwood Southern Beeches [Nothofagus] [Eucryphia lucida] leatherwood trees