Eidothea hardeniana

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Eidothea hardeniana
Eidothea hardeniana Nightcap Oak leaves.jpg
Nightcap oak leaves at Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney
Conservation status

Critically Endangered (IUCN 3.1)[1]

Critically endangered (EPBC Act)[2]
Scientific classification edit
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Order: Proteales
Family: Proteaceae
Genus: Eidothea
Species:
E. hardeniana
Binomial name
Eidothea hardeniana
P.H.Weston & Kooyman[3][4]

Eidothea hardeniana, commonly named nightcap oak, is a species of tree, up to 40 m (130 ft) tall, of the plant family Proteaceae, which botanist Robert Kooyman recognised as a new species only recently in 2002.[3][5][6] The species has an official listing as critically endangered on the Australian Commonwealth EPBC Act and as Endangered on the NSW Threatened Species Act.[2][5] The name hardeniana honours the botanist Gwen Harden. Phylogenetics studies now suggest it represents a basal branch of the Proteoid clade of the Proteaceae.

Distribution and habitat[]

The trees are only known to grow naturally in a single creek catchment in warm temperate rainforest in the Nightcap Range, northern New South Wales, Australia. They grow naturally in relatively poor, acidic volcanic soils, in an area of a high rainfall. Only around 100 wild plants are known.[3][6] Plants are in cultivation, including in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney.

Much of its habitat was devastated by bushfire in 2019–20.[7] However, the plant has the ability to survive fires by coppicing itself as well as reproducing with its large seeds, and less than a fifth are thought to have died.[8]

Description[]

Eidothea hardeniana trees have pale lichen covered bark typical of many species in the Warm Temperate Rainforests. Often a ring of coppice shoots surrounds the base of an adult tree, coppice and seedling leaves have spiny marginal teeth, while adult leaves have no teeth.[3]

Flowers are cream, occur in clusters and smell of aniseed.

Fruits are large and rounded with a yellow green skin and a hard nut inside. The walls of the nut are ribbed, a feature unique to this genus in the family. The seed has a white center and it probably contains poisonous cyanogenic compounds like some species of Macadamia.[citation needed] These toxins do not deter rodents from eating through the hard nut and devouring the seeds, limiting the regeneration of this plant.

Flower photos[]

  • Un-opened buds

  • Flowers

  • Flowers

  • Flower growing directly from the main stem

References[]

  1. ^ Forster, P., Ford, A., Griffith, S. & Benwell, A. 2020. Eidothea hardeniana. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2020: e.T112631200A113309140. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-2.RLTS.T112631200A113309140.en. Downloaded on 26 August 2021.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b Eidothea hardeniana – Nightcap Oak, Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of the Environment and Heritage, Australia. Retrieved 14 Dec 2013
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Weston, P. H.; Kooyman, R. M. (2002). "Systematics of Eidothea (Proteaceae), with the description of a new species, E. hardeniana, from the Nightcap Range, north-eastern New South Wales". Telopea. 9 (4): 821–832. doi:10.7751/telopea20024022.
  4. ^ "Eidothea hardeniana P.H.Weston & Kooyman". Australian Plant Name Index (APNI), IBIS database. Centre for Plant Biodiversity Research, Australian Government. Retrieved 10 Nov 2013.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b NSW Department of Environment and Conservation (2004). National Recovery Plan for the Nightcap Oak (Eidothea hardeniana). Hurstville, New South Wales: Department of Environment and Conservation. ISBN 0-7313-6781-2. Retrieved 10 Nov 2013.
  6. ^ Jump up to: a b Weston, P. H.; Kooyman, R. M. (2002). "Eidothea hardeniana- Botany and Ecology of the 'Nightcap Oak'". Australian Plants. Australian Plants Society. 21: 339–342. Archived from the original on 2013-11-10.
  7. ^ Shoebridge, Joanne; Marciniak, Catherine (18 January 2020). "Gondwana-era rainforest stand of nightcap oak devastated by unprecedented bushfire". ABC News. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved 18 January 2020.
  8. ^ "Precious nightcap oak survives the carnage of bushfire with show of uplifting resilience". www.abc.net.au. 2020-06-14. Retrieved 2021-08-24.

External links[]

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