Diselma archeri

Scientific name: Diselma archeri  J.Hooker  1860

Synonyms:Fitzroya archeri (Hook.f.) Benth. & Hook.f.

Common names: Cheshunt pine, Chestnut pine

Description

Erect shrub to 2.5 m, or sometimes a tree to 6 m tall, with trunk to 30 cm in diameter. Bark reddish brown when fresh, darkening and then weathering grayish brown, rough with persistent scale leaf bases and then accumulating flakes and scales. Crown irregular, broadly dome-shaped in owerall outline but made up of individual cones, each with numerous rising branches bearing dense, rounded tufts of branchlets at their tips. Branchlets short, turning brown by the second or third year (or later), completely hidden by the leaves. Adult leaves blunt, 1-2 mm long, dark green. Pollen cones 2-3 mm long. Seed cones 4-5 mm across, with a club-shaped central column 4-5 mm long, about as long as the scales and seeds. Seeds longer than the scales, about 5 mm long.

Central and western Tasmania (Australia). Mostly alpine and subalpine shrublands but also extending down into high-elevation temperate rain forest; (800-)1,000-1,400 m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

(The extent of occurrence, calculated from a comprehensive sampling of herbarium specimen locality data, is below the 20,000 km² threshold for Vulnerable under criterion B. The AOO also falls below that threshold (2,000 km²). However, it is considered by Brown and Hill (1999) not to be in decline although sensitive to fire. The hypothetical consequences of climate change could affect this species if it were to be established that there is a drying trend, increasing fire risk. The species is therefore listed as Least Concern)

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

Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.