Scientific name: Agathis ovata (C. Moore ex Vieillard) O. Warburg 1900

Synonyms: Agathis hypoleuca (C.Moore ex Henkel & W.Hochst.) Warb., Dammara hypoleuca C.Moore ex Henkel & W.Hochst., Dammara ovata C.Moore ex Vieill., Dammara ovata var. longifolia Carrière, Salisburyodendron ovata (C.Moore ex Vieill.) A.V.Bobrov & Melikyan, Salisburyodendron ovata subsp. hypoleuca (C.Moore ex Henkel & W.Hochst.) A.V.Bobrov & Melikyan

Common names: Scrub kauri, Dwarf kauri (English), Kaori de montagne, Kaori nain (French)

Description

Shrub, maturing at as little as 1 m high, to small tree to 8(-13) m (or exceptionally to 25 m on favorable and protected sites), with cylindrical or knobbly, unbuttressed or slightly swollen trunk to 0.7(-1.2) m in diameter, branched from near the base or free of branches for up to 10(-15) m. Bark light brown and smooth at first, weathering dark to very pale gray, flaking in thick, irregular scales, and becoming very thick and deeply and irregularly ridged and furrowed with age. Crown dense and conical at first, becoming more open, very broadly dome-shaped, and flat-topped, with a cluster of thick, upwardly angled, contorted branches, subdividing rapidly and bearing tufts of upright branchlets at their tips. Branchlets with a thin waxy film, densely clothed with foliage. Leaves dark green to yellowish green above, paler and with a grayish waxy film beneath, (3-)4-8 cm long, (1-)1.5-5 cm wide, more or less egg-shaped (hence the scientific name), widest near or beyond the middle (before the middle in juveniles), tapering abruptly to the rounded to roundly triangular tip and equally abruptly or somewhat more gradually to the roundly wedge-shaped base on a short petiole 1-5 mm long. Pollen cones with a waxy film, 3-5 cm long, 10-15 mm thick, with five or six pairs of larger, tightly clasping, sterile scales at the base (of which the lowest pair is leaflike, extending 12-15 mm) on a stalk 3-15 mm long. Each pollen scale with six to eight pollen sacs and a rounded external face. Seed cones with remnants of a waxy film at maturity, round but a little longer than wide, about 6 cm long and 5 cm thick. Seed scales with a prominent, triangular, projecting tip about 3-4 mm long. Seed body 9-12 mm long and 8-9 mm wide, the larger wing 10-15 mm by 9-14 mm, the smaller one earlike, projecting about 3 mm.

Widely distributed and common in the southern third of New Caledonia south from the Ouenghi River valley, with an outlier on Mont Ménazi near Kouaoua, some 65 km north of the more continuous distribution. Most commonly scattered in the canopy of or as widely spaced emergents above maquis minière shrublands on serpentine-derived ultrabasic soils (Plate 10) but also a component of adjacent rain-forest canopies; 150-800(-1,150) m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Endangered

Agathis ovata is assessed as Endangered on the basis of its limited extent of occurrence (2,814 km2), area of occupancy (100 km2), a projected decline extent of occurrence, area of occupancy, the quality of habitat, number of locations and number of mature individuals due to mining activities and fires. Although there are eight general locations known (three more than the threshold for Endangered), there is severe fragmentation of subpopulations due to their geographic isolation, large areas of intervening unsuitable habitat and low dispersal and reproduction rates.

Agathis ovata occurs as an emergent tree in open shrublands (maquis) and as a canopy emergent (to 25 m) in angiosperm-dominated (closed) rainforests. It is restricted to ultramafic soils and in the maquis; it tends to be restricted to rocky outcrops.

Mining activities and fires are the main threats. The species is capable of establishing and persisting in both rainforest and maquis. Mature trees have some fire resistance but this depends on frequency and severity. Regeneration and general growth rates are very slow.

Several subpopulations at higher altitudes occur in protected aresa such as the Rivière Bleue Provincial Park, Montagne des Sources and Mt Do.

References

Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.
Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland