Kingdom: Plantae
(Unranked): Angiosperms
(Unranked): Eudicots
(Unranked): Rosids
Order: Fagales
Family: Nothofagaceae
Genus: Fuscospora
Species: Fuscospora cliffortioides
Binomial name: Fuscospora cliffortioides
Synonyms: Fagus cliffortioides, Nothofagus cliffortioides, Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides
Common names: Mountain beech, Tawhairauriki
Fuscospora cliffortioides commonly called Mountain beech. It endemic to New Zealand and is a very common forest canopy tree in drier upland areas and grows in montane forest and subalpine forest and scrub in the North andSouth Islands. Mountain Beech grows to around 20 metres but near the tree line at altitude, it forms a "goblin forest" where the trees are no more than 2m tall.
It bears small leathery, 0-15mm long, leaves that are arranged along the twigs. They are pale underneath and have incurved margins.
Small red/pink, inconspicuous flowers appear November - January. The fruits are also inconspicuous and develop February to April.
Fuscospora cliffortioides (Mountain beech)
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The underside of the leaves.
A small tree growing at altitude on the Denniston plateau, Westcoast
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Leaves of the above shrub.
Thanks to Wikipedia for text and information http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
