Nothofagus

Last updated

Nothofagus
Temporal range:
Late Cretaceous to recent 83.6–0  Ma
Nothofagus cunninghamii kz02.jpg
Nothofagus cunninghamii , Eastern Australia.
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Nothofagaceae
Kuprian. [1]
Genus: Nothofagus
Blume
Nothofagus Distribution.svg
The range of Nothofagus.
Synonyms [2]
  • CalucechinusHombr. & Jacquinot ex Decne. in J.S.C.Dumont d'Urville
  • CalusparassusHombr. & Jacquinot ex Decne. in J.S.C.Dumont d'Urville
  • CliffortioidesDryand. ex Hook.
  • FagasterSpach
  • Fuscospora(R.S.Hill & J.Read) Heenan & Smissen
  • LophozoniaTurcz.
  • MyrtilloidesBanks & Sol. ex Hook.
  • TrisyngyneBaill.
Shoots, leaves, and cupules of N. obliqua Nothofagus obliqua Shoot LeavesCupules.jpg
Shoots, leaves, and cupules of N. obliqua
Southern beech trees in New Zealand Beech trees southern North Island New Zealand.JPG
Southern beech trees in New Zealand
The Nothofagus plant genus illustrates the distribution on fragments of the old supercontinent Gondwana: Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Argentina, and Chile. Fossils show that the genus originated on Gondwana. Nothofagus range including New Caledonia.jpg
The Nothofagus plant genus illustrates the distribution on fragments of the old supercontinent Gondwana: Australia, New Guinea, New Zealand, New Caledonia, Argentina, and Chile. Fossils show that the genus originated on Gondwana.

Nothofagus, also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species [3] of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and east and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. The species are ecological dominants in many temperate forests in these regions. [4] Some species are reportedly naturalised in Germany and Great Britain. [5] The genus has a rich fossil record of leaves, cupules, and pollen, with fossils extending into the late Cretaceous period and occurring in Australia, New Zealand, Antarctica, and South America. [6]

Contents

Description

The leaves are toothed or entire, evergreen or deciduous. The fruit is a small, flattened or triangular nut, borne in cupules containing one to seven nuts.

Reproduction

Many individual trees are extremely old, and at one time, some populations were thought to be unable to reproduce in present-day conditions where they were growing, except by suckering (clonal reproduction), being remnant forest from a cooler time. Sexual reproduction has since been shown to be possible. [7]

Taxonomy

The genus Nothofagus was first formally described in 1850 by Carl Ludwig Blume who published the description in his book Museum botanicum Lugduno-Batavum, sive, Stirpium exoticarum novarum vel minus cognitarum ex vivis aut siccis brevis expositio et descriptio. [8] [9] Nothofagus means "false beech", which Blume chose to indicate that Nothofagus species were different from beeches in the Northern Hemisphere. [10]

In the past, they were included in the family Fagaceae, but genetic tests revealed them to be genetically distinct, [11] and they are now included in their own family, Nothofagaceae. [11]

Species list

The following is a list of species, hybrids and varieties accepted by the Plants of the World Online as of April 2023: [2]

Subgenera

Four subgenera are recognized, based on morphology and DNA analysis: [12]

In 2013, Peter Brian Heenan and Rob D. Smissen proposed splitting the genus into four, turning the four recognized subgenera into the new genera Fuscospora, Lophozonia and Trisyngyne, with the five South American species of subgenus Nothofagus remaining in genus Nothofagus. [12] The proposed new genera are not accepted at the World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. [5] [13]

Extinct species

The following additional species are listed as extinct: [6] [14] [15] [16]

Distribution

The pattern of distribution around the southern Pacific Rim suggests the dissemination of the genus dates to the time when Antarctica, Australia, and South America were connected in a common land-mass or supercontinent referred to as Gondwana. [18] However, genetic evidence using molecular dating methods has been used to argue that the species in New Zealand and New Caledonia evolved from species that arrived in these landmasses by dispersal across oceans. [19] Uncertainty exists in molecular dates and controversy rages as to whether the distribution of Nothofagus derives from the break-up of Gondwana (i.e. vicariance), or if long-distance dispersal has occurred across oceans. In South America, the northern limit of the genus can be construed as La Campana National Park and the Vizcachas Mountains in the central part of Chile. [20]

Evolutionary history

Nothofagus first appeared in Antarctica during the early Campanian stage (83.6 to 72.1 million years ago) of the Late Cretaceous. During the Campanian Nothofagus diversified and became dominant within Antarctic ecosystems, with the appearance of all four modern subgenera by the end of the stage. Nothofagus shows a progressive decline in the Antarctic pollen record through the Maastrichtian, before substantially recovering after the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. [21] Nothofagus persisted in Antarctica deep into the Cenozoic, despite the increasingly inhospitable conditions, with the final records from the late Neogene, around 15-5 million years old, which were small tundra-adapted prostrate shrubs, similar to Salix arctica (Arctic willow). [22]

Nothofagus first appeared in southern South America during the late Campanian. During the Paleocene and Eocene they were mostly restricted to southern Patagonia, before reaching a peak abundance during the Miocene. Their distribution contracted westwards during the late Miocene due to the aridification of Patagonia. [23]

Although the genus now mostly occurs in cool, isolated, high-altitude environments at temperate and tropical latitudes, the fossil record shows that it survived in climates that appear to be much warmer than those that Nothofagus now occupies. [24]

Ecology

Nothofagus species are used as food plants by the larvae of hepialid moths of the genus Aenetus , including A. eximia and A. virescens. Zelopsis nothofagi is a leaf hopper, endemic to New Zealand, which is found on Nothofagus.

Cyttaria is genus of ascomycete fungi found on or associated with Nothofagus in Australia and South America. Misodendrum are specialist parasitic plants found on various species of Nothofagus in South America. [25] Additionally, the beetle, Brachysternus prasinus, has been known to live in Nothofagus in Chile and in parts of Argentina. The geographic range of B. prasinus is highly dependent on the availability and distribution of Nothofagus on which B. prasinus is believed to feed. B. prasinus have been observed in the Nothofagus forests near the cities of Coquimbo and Llanquihue in Chile as well as the areas of Neuquén and Chubut in Western Argentina. [26]

The species of subgenus Brassospora are evergreen, and distributed in the tropics of New Guinea, New Britain, and New Caledonia. In New Guinea and New Britain Nothofagus is characteristic of lower montane rain forests between 1000 and 2500 meters elevation, occurring infrequently at elevations as low as 600 meters, and in upper montane forests between 2500 and 3150 meters elevation. Nothofagus is most commonly found above the Castanopsis-Lithocarpus zone in the lower montane forests, and below the conifer-dominated upper montane forests. Nothofagus grows in mixed stands with trees of other species or in pure stands, particularly on ridge crests and upper slopes. The Central Range has the greatest diversity of species, with fewer species distributed among the mountains of western and northern New Guinea, New Britain, and Goodenough and Normanby islands. [25]

The New Caledonian species are endemic to the main island (Grand Terre), most commonly on soils derived from ultramafic rocks between 150 and 1350 meters elevation. They occur in isolated stands, forming a low or stunted and irregular and fairly open canopy. The conifers Agathis and Araucaria are sometimes present as emergents, rising 10 to 20 meters above the Nothofagus canopy. [25]

Beech mast

Every four to six years or so, Nothofagus produces a heavier crop of seeds and is known as the beech mast. In New Zealand, the beech mast causes an increase in the population of introduced mammals such as mice, rats, and stoats. When the rodent population collapses, the stoats begin to prey on native bird species, many of which are threatened with extinction. [27] This phenomenon is covered in more detail in the article on stoats in New Zealand.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fagaceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Fagaceae are a family of flowering plants that includes beeches, chestnuts and oaks, and comprises eight genera with about 927 species. Fagaceae in temperate regions are mostly deciduous, whereas in the tropics, many species occur as evergreen trees and shrubs. They are characterized by alternate simple leaves with pinnate venation, unisexual flowers in the form of catkins, and fruit in the form of cup-like (cupule) nuts. Their leaves are often lobed, and both petioles and stipules are generally present. Their fruits lack endosperm and lie in a scaly or spiny husk that may or may not enclose the entire nut, which may consist of one to seven seeds. In the oaks, genus Quercus, the fruit is a non-valved nut called an acorn. The husk of the acorn in most oaks only forms a cup in which the nut sits. Other members of the family have fully enclosed nuts. Fagaceae is one of the most ecologically important woody plant families in the Northern Hemisphere, as oaks form the backbone of temperate forest in North America, Europe, and Asia, and are one of the most significant sources of wildlife food.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beech</span> Genus of flowering plants in the family Fagaceae

Beech (Fagus) is a genus of deciduous trees in the family Fagaceae, native to subtropical and temperate Eurasia and North America. There are 14 accepted species in two distinct subgenera, EnglerianaeDenk & G.W.Grimm and Fagus. The subgenus Englerianae is found only in East Asia, distinctive for its low branches, often made up of several major trunks with yellowish bark. The better known species of subgenus Fagus are native to Europe, western and eastern Asia and eastern North America. They are high-branching trees with tall, stout trunks and smooth silver-grey bark.

<i>Araucaria</i> Genus of evergreen conifers in the family Araucariaceae

Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. While today they are largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, during the Jurassic and Cretaceous they were globally distributed. There are 20 extant species in New Caledonia, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antarctic flora</span> Distinct community of plants which evolved on the supercontinent of Gondwana

Antarctic flora are a distinct community of vascular plants which evolved millions of years ago on the supercontinent of Gondwana. Presently, species of Antarctica flora reside on several now separated areas of the Southern Hemisphere, including southern South America, southernmost Africa, New Zealand, Australia, and New Caledonia. Joseph Dalton Hooker was the first to notice similarities in the flora and speculated that Antarctica had served as either a source or a transitional point, and that land masses now separated might formerly have been adjacent.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atherospermataceae</span> Family of flowering plants

The Atherospermataceae, commonly known as the southern sassafrases, are a family of broadleaf evergreen trees and shrubs. The family includes 14 species in seven genera. The atherosperms are today mostly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere, with two species native to southern Chile and 12 species native to Australasia. Wood is commercially harvested from rainforest species of this family, and is used both in construction and in fine cabinet making.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New Caledonia rain forests</span>

The New Caledonia rain forests are a terrestrial ecoregion, located in New Caledonia in the South Pacific. It is a tropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion, part of the Australasian realm.

<i>Nothofagus cunninghamii</i> Species of tree

Nothofagus cunninghamii, commonly known as myrtle beech or Tasmanian myrtle, is the dominant species of cool temperate rainforests in Tasmania and Southern Victoria. It has low fire resistance and grows best in partial shade conditions.

<i>Nothofagus gunnii</i> Species of plant

Nothofagus gunnii, the tanglefoot or deciduous beech, is a deciduous shrub or small tree endemic to the highlands of Tasmania, Australia. It was described in 1847 by R.C Gunn N. gunnii is a small woody tree with a shrubby appearance known to grow up to 8 metres (26 ft). It lives only on mountains due to temperature limitations within the Tasmanian maritime climate and mainly grows at altitudes greater than 800 metres (2,600 ft) above sea level. It grows in alpine and sub-alpine regions in the central portions of the island. Though capable of reaching the size of a small tree, it is most common as a thick shrub or woody ground cover, hence its common name of "tanglefoot".

<i>Nothofagus moorei</i> Species of tree

Nothofagus moorei, commonly known as Antarctic beech, is an important Gondwana relict of the rainforests of the southern hemisphere. It occurs in wet, fire-free areas at high altitude in eastern Australia.

<i>Nothofagus fusca</i> Species of tree

Nothofagus fusca, commonly known as red beech is a species of southern beech, endemic to New Zealand, occurring on both the North and South Island. It is generally found on lower hills and inland valley floors where soil is fertile and well drained. In New Zealand the species is called Fuscospora fusca.

<i>Nothofagus solandri</i> Species of plant

Nothofagus solandri, commonly called black beech, is species of tree endemic to New Zealand. Black beech occurs on both the North and the South Island at low elevations up to the mountains. It is also known as Nothofagus solandri var. solandri. In New Zealand the taxon is often called Fuscospora solandri.

<i>Nothofagus alessandrii</i> Species of plant

Nothofagus alessandrii, the ruil, is a species of plant in the family Nothofagaceae, commonly known as the southern beeches. It is endemic to Chile, occurring chiefly in the Chilean matorral ecoregion. It is threatened by habitat loss. The species is protected within Los Ruiles National Reserve.

<i>Nothofagus glauca</i> Species of plant

Nothofagus glauca, commonly known as hualo or roble Maulino, is a species of plant in the family Nothofagaceae. It is a deciduous tree endemic to Chile. It grows from 34° to 37° South latitude. It is a typical tree of the maritime mediterranean-climate Maulino forest of Central Chile, its current range spanning over 330 km from north to south. The species grows on a variety of soils and is mostly found on gentle to steep slopes.

Nothofagus nuda is a species of plant in the family Nothofagaceae. It is endemic to Papua New Guinea. It is threatened by habitat loss.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleotropical Kingdom</span> One of the Earths six floristic kingdoms

The Paleotropical Kingdom (Paleotropis) is a floristic kingdom composed of the tropical areas of Africa, Asia and Oceania, as proposed by Ronald Good and Armen Takhtajan. Part of its flora is inherited from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana or exchanged later. These Gondwanan lineages are related to those in the Neotropical Kingdom, composed of the tropical areas of Central and South America. Flora from the Paleotropical Kingdom influenced the tropical flora of the Australian Kingdom. The kingdom is subdivided into five floristic subkingdoms according to Takhtajan and about 13 floristic regions. In this article the floristic subkingdoms and regions are given as delineated by Takhtajan.

The natural history of New Zealand began when the landmass Zealandia – today an almost entirely submerged mass of continental crust with New Zealand and a few other islands peaking above sea level – broke away from the supercontinent Gondwana in the Cretaceous period. Before this time, Zealandia shared its past with Australia and Antarctica. Since this separation, the New Zealand landscape has evolved in physical isolation, although much of its current biota has more recent connections with species on other landmasses. The exclusively natural history of the country ended in about 1300 AD, when humans first settled, and the country's environmental history began. The period from 1300 AD to today coincides with the extinction of many of New Zealand's unique species that had evolved there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ecology of Tasmania</span>

The biodiversity of Tasmania is of exceptional biological and paleoecological interest. A state of Australia, it is a large South Pacific archipelago of one large main island and a range of smaller islands. The terrain includes a variety of reefs, atolls, many small islands, and a variety of topographical and edaphic regions on the largest island, all of which promote the development of unusually concentrated biodiversity. During long periods geographically and genetically isolated, it is known for its unique flora and fauna. The region's climate is oceanic.

<i>Nothofagus cliffortioides</i> Species of Southern beech tree in New Zealand

Nothofagus cliffortioides, commonly called mountain beech, is a species of Southern beech tree and is endemic to New Zealand. Mountain beech grows in mountainous regions at high elevations. In New Zealand the taxon is called Fuscospora cliffortioides. Nothofagus cliffortioides occupies a wider range of habitat than any other New Zealand tree species and it shows a corresponding range of life form, seeding habits, regenerative patterns, growth habits, growth rates, stand replacement and mortality patterns.

Nothofagus brassii is a species of tree in the family Nothofagaceae. It is endemic to New Guinea. It is commonly known as Sagé, sagé hitam, sahé, and kayu sagé, kayu sagé hitam (Indonesian).

Nothofagus starkenborghiorum is a species of tree in the family Nothofagaceae. It is native to New Guinea and New Britain. It grows in montane rain forests, and occasionally in lowland rain forests.

References

  1. ↑ Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (2009). "An update of the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group classification for the orders and families of flowering plants: APG III". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 161 (2): 105–121. doi: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.2009.00996.x . hdl: 10654/18083 .
  2. 1 2 "Nothofagus". Plants of the World Online - Kew Science. Retrieved 19 April 2023.
  3. ↑ Christenhusz, M. J. M.; Byng, J. W. (2016). "The number of known plants species in the world and its annual increase". Phytotaxa. 261 (3): 201–217. doi: 10.11646/phytotaxa.261.3.1 .
  4. ↑ Veblen, Thomas; Hill, Robert; Read, Jennifer (1996). Ecology and Biogeography of Nothofagus Forests. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. ISBN   978-0-300-06423-0.
  5. 1 2 Kew World Checklist of Selected Plant Families
  6. 1 2 Hill, Robert (2001). "Biogeography, evolution and palaeoecology of Nothofagus (Nothofagaceae): The contribution of the fossil record". Australian Journal of Botany. 49 (3): 321. doi:10.1071/BT00026.
  7. ↑ "Abstracts on Global Climate Change". cgi.cse.unsw.edu.au. Archived from the original on 2008-01-07.
  8. ↑ "Nothofagus". Australian Plant Census. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  9. ↑ Blume, Carl Ludwig (1850). Museum botanicum Lugduno-Batavum, sive, Stirpium exoticarum novarum vel minus cognitarum ex vivis aut siccis brevis expositio et descriptio. pp. 306–307. Retrieved 22 April 2020.
  10. ↑ Ryan, John Charles (2021-07-25). ""Solitary in Your Rainy Kingdom:" Postcolonial Poetic Narratives of the Southern Beech". Revista Interdisciplinar de Literatura e Ecocrítica. 7 (1): 5–28.
  11. 1 2 Manos, Paul (1997). "Phylogenetic analyses of 'higher' Hamamelididae based on plastid sequence data". American Journal of Botany. 84 (10): 1407–1419. doi: 10.2307/2446139 . JSTOR   2446139. PMID   21708548.
  12. 1 2 Heenan, P.B.; Smissen, R.D. (2013). "Revised circumscription of Nothofagus and recognition of the segregate genera Fuscospora, Lophozonia, and Trisyngyne (Nothofagaceae)". Phytotaxa. 146 (1): 1–31. doi: 10.11646/phytotaxa.146.1.1 .
  13. ↑ Hill, RS; Jordan, GJ; Macphail, MK (2015). "Why we should retain Nothofagus sensu lato". Australian Systematic Botany. 28 (3): 190–193. doi:10.1071/sb15026. S2CID   83733526.
  14. ↑ Carpenter, RJ; Bannister, JM; Lee, DE; Jordan, GJ (2014). "Nothofagus subgenus Brassospora (Nothofagaceae) leaf fossils from New Zealand: A link to Australia and New Guinea?". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 174 (4): 503–515. doi:10.1111/boj.12143.
  15. ↑ Jordan, GJ (1999). "A new Early Pleistocene species of Nothofagus and the climatic implications of co-occurring Nothofagus fossils" (PDF). Australian Systematic Botany. 12 (6): 757–765. doi:10.1071/sb98025.
  16. ↑ "Fossilworks: Nothofagus". Paleobiology Database . Retrieved 2022-12-04.
  17. ↑ Hill, R.S.; Harwood, D.M.; Webb, P.-N. (1996). "Nothofagus beardmorensis (Nothofagaceae), a new species based on leaves from the Pliocene Sirius Group, Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica". Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. 94 (1–2): 11–24. Bibcode:1996RPaPa..94...11H. doi:10.1016/S0034-6667(96)00003-6.
  18. ↑ "Native Forest Network (2003) Gondwana Forest Sanctuary". Archived from the original on 2008-05-16. Retrieved 2007-11-06.
  19. ↑ Knapp, M; Stockler, K; Havell, D; Delsuc, F; Sebastiani, F; Lockhart, PJ (2005). "Relaxed molecular clock provides evidence for long-distance dispersal of Nothofagus (Southern Beech)". PLOS Biology. 3 (1): 38–43. doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.0030014 . PMC   539330 . PMID   15660155.
  20. ↑ C. Michael Hogan (2008) Chilean Wine Palm: Jubaea chilensis, GlobalTwitcher.com, ed. Nicklas Stromberg Archived 2012-10-17 at the Wayback Machine
  21. ↑ Cantrill, David J. (2018), "Cretaceous to Paleogene Vegetation Transition in Antarctica", Transformative Paleobotany, Elsevier, pp. 645–659, doi:10.1016/b978-0-12-813012-4.00027-9, ISBN   978-0-12-813012-4 , retrieved 2021-05-19
  22. ↑ Rees-Owen, Rhian L.; Newton, Robert J.; Ivanovic, Ruza F.; Francis, Jane E.; Riding, James B.; Marca, Alina D. (February 2021). "A calibration of cellulose isotopes in modern prostrate Nothofagus and its application to fossil material from Antarctica". Science of the Total Environment. 754: 142247. Bibcode:2021ScTEn.75442247R. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.142247 . PMID   33254952.
  23. ↑ Pujana, Roberto R; Fernández, Damián A; Panti, Carolina; Caviglia, Nicolás (2020-12-31). "The micro- and megafossil record of Nothofagaceae from South America". Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society. 196 (1): 1–20. doi:10.1093/botlinnean/boaa097. ISSN   0024-4074.
  24. ↑ Carpenter, RJ; Jordan, GJ; Macphail, MK; Hill, RS (2012). "Near-tropical early eocene terrestrial temperatures at the Australo-Antarctic margin, western Tasmania". Geology. 40 (3): 267–270. Bibcode:2012Geo....40..267C. doi:10.1130/G32584.1.
  25. 1 2 3 Read, Jennifer; Hope, Geoffrey S. (1996). "Ecology of Nothofagus forests of New Guinea and New Caledonia". In Veblen, Thomas T; Hill, Robert S.; Read, Jennifer (eds.). The Ecology and Biogeography of Nothofagus Forests. Yale University Press. pp. 200–256. ISBN   978-0-300-06423-0.
  26. ↑ Jameson, Mary Liz; Smith, Andrew B. T. (September 1, 2002). "Revision of the South American Genus BrachysternusGuérin-Méneville (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Rutelinae: Anoplognathini: Brachysternina)". The Coleopterists Bulletin. 56 (3): 321–366. doi:10.1649/0010-065X(2002)056[0321:ROTSAG]2.0.CO;2. hdl: 10057/3386 . ISSN   0010-065X.
  27. ↑ "Beech forest: Native plants". Department of Conservation. Retrieved 26 August 2012.
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