Scientific name: Araucaria nemorosa de Laubenfels 1969

Synonyms: Eutassa nemorosa (de Laub.) de Laub.

Common names: Boise araucaria, Port Boise araucaria

Description

Tree to 15-30 m tall (at different sites), with trunk to 0.5 m in diameter. Bark reddish brown, weathering gray, curling back and peeling along narrow horizontal strips or flaking in irregular scales. Crown narrowly conical to narrowly egg-shaped, with numerous, unequally spaced original and replacement tiers of (four or) five to seven slender, upwardly angled branches up to 4 m long bearing long combs of persistent branchlets rising on either side to form a V. Branchlets slender, 8-12 mm in diameter, including the leaves, partially obscured by them, remaining green for several years before being shed intact or with the whole branch. Juvenile and adult leaves both clawlike, keeled on both faces, standing out from the branchlets at a slight forward angle, curled inward slightly, and overlapping loosely. Juvenile leaves 4-8 mm long, 0.8-1.2 mm thick. Adult leaves varying in length along the branchlets, 6-10 mm long, axis of the leaf, in variably spaced, interrupted lines making up continuous bands on either side of the keel on both faces. Pollen cones 8-10 cm long, 12-15 mm thick, each pollen scale with 6-10 pollen sacs in a single row. Seed cones spherical or a little longer, 10-12 cm long, 8.5-10 cm thick, green at maturity. Seed scales about 3 cm long, only slightly narrower, including the papery wings that are slightly wider than the central, seed-bearing portion, with a narrow, bristlelike, downturned tip 1-2 cm long. Seeds narrowly almond-shaped, 1.8-2.5 cm long, about 1 cm thick. Cotyledons appearing above ground during germination.

Southernmost New Caledonia in the vicinity of Port Boisé. In a few small, dense groves (hence the scientific name, Latin for “of the groves”) near stands of Cook pine (Araucaria columnaris) on serpentine-derived soils at the shore; 0(-20)-185 m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Critically Endangered

This species is assessed as Critically Endangered due to severe fragmentation, its very small extent of occurrence (< 17 km²) and area of occupancy (measured as 0.64 km²) coupled with a projected continuing decline. The total population is less than 5,000 mature individuals in two locations. More than 90% are found in seven fragments around Port Boisé while the remainder are slightly inland at Forêt Nord where a smelter is being developed. This area is the focus of an ongoing restoration programme. Subpopulations in the immediate vicinity of Port Boisé are primarily threatened by fire. Genetic research indicates high levels of inbreeding as a result of fragmentation.

The main population of this species occurs on a level plateau just inland from Port Boisé at around 20-40 m asl. The trees stand in small groups or wide apart among low (to 10 m) and open to dense evergreen forest or scrub interspersed with nearly black, stony areas (cuirasse) almost devoid of vegetation.

Around Port Boisé it is vulnerable to increasing widlfires, occasional felling and the expansion of human habitation. At Forêt Nord the subpopulation is within a new mining development. Recent research has indicated that all subpopulations are showing signs of inbreeding.

The species has been harvested for local timber use in the past and that is still continuing in places.

The subpopulation at Forêt Nord is the subject of an ongoing restoration programme that aims to protect that area and to eventually establish a corridor to the other subpopulations in the Port Boisé area. This work is still at an early stage.

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