Friday 6 March 2009

Conifers at Monserrate

List compiled by Luso-Canadian Team, 1988-89

Abies nordmanniana
Abies procera
Abies spectabilis
Agathis australis
Agathis obtusa
Agathis robusta
Araucaria angustifolia
Araucaria bidwillii
Araucaria columnaris
Araucaria cunninghamii
Araucaria glauca
Araucaria heterophylla
Araucaria rulei
Calocedrus decurrens
Cedrus atlantica
Cedrus libani
Chamaecyparis funebris
Chamaecyparis lawsoniana
Chamaecyparis pisifera
Cryptomeria japonica
Cupressus arizonica
Cupressus californica
Cupressus fastigiata
Cupressus goveniana
Cupressus lusitanica
Cupressus macrocarpa
Dacrydium cupressinum
Juniperus cedrus
Juniperus virginiana
Pinus ayachuite
Pinus canariensis
Pinus halapensis
Pinus montaezumae
Pinus normanniana
Pinus patula
Pinus pinaster
Pinus pinea
Pinus roxburghii
Pinus wallichiana
Podocarpus ferrugineus
Podocarpus manii
Podocarpus montanus
Podocarpus neriifolius
Podocarpus taxiflora
Platycladus orientalis
Sciadopitys verticillata
Sequoia semprevirens
Sequioadendron giganteum
Taxodium distichum
Taxodium excelsum
Taxodium mucronatum
Taxodium sempervirens
Taxus baccata
Thuja plicata


List compiled from historical references - contains some antique synonyms and mispellings - to be sorted out. Many of these plants are no longer to be found in the gardens. However there are omissions that are still present.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is quite a collection.

Agathis are fabulous trees. Apparently, A.obtusa (and A.macrophylla)is now under A.vitiensis but the situation is confusing; Silba (1990) re-classifies it as A.macrophylla var.ontusa (sic) according to Tropicos. Do you have a country of origin for your specimen?

Araucaria glauca is synonymous with A.cunninghamii.

A.rulei is an endangered rarity from New Caledonia. According to the "Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australa" by Roger Spencer 1995:

"At the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, near the Temple-of the Winds, there is a fine 15m tall specimen of Araucaria laubenfelsii Corbasson with extraordinary pendulous arching branches upturned at the tips. This is probably one of few of these remarkable trees in cultivation. Acquired...as A.rulei F. Muell,it was tentatively identified by Dr Laubenfels as this species. Another similar specimen may be seen at the old Coles Nursery site, Belgrave,although this could be a different species. It is possible that both of these trees have retained juvenile or intermediate leaves...a feature that complicates identification."

I wonder whether this may be the case with Monserrate's A.rulei?

Spencer continues:
"...A.rulei F. Muell is listed in nineteenth-century nursery catalogues but no mature cultivated specimens have been identified with certainty. This species was discovered by Mr W. Duncan, a botanical collector for Mr John Rule of Rule's Nursery in Richmond, Melbourne...Young specimens about 2m tall and showing the typical robust mature foliage, somewhat intermediate between A.columnaris and A.araucana, can be seen at Geelong Botanic Gardens..."

Spencer then lists locations of plantings and seed distributions of positively identified A.rulei made in the 1980s in SE Australia.

Is the listed Podocarpus manii a mispelling of "makii"?

Gerald Luckhurst said...

Agathis are fabulous trees. Apparently, A.obtusa (and A.macrophylla)is now under A.vitiensis but the situation is confusing; Silba (1990) re-classifies it as A.macrophylla var.ontusa (sic) according to Tropicos. Do you have a country of origin for your specimen?

There are two very large Agathis trees still at Monserrate, marked down as Agathis robusta. One has a trunk 6m in girth – about 190cm dbh. Looking at http://www.conifers.org/ar/ag/robusta.html that looks as though it would give current New Zealanders a run for their money. There is alo a recent record of Agathis brownii. But a big araucaria died about 15 years ago. Something to tackle soon.

Araucaria glauca is synonymous with A.cunninghamii.

No cunninghamii at Monserrate now, but there is a magnificent tree at a former royal palace near where I live. A. glauca is used in Monserrate literature, but I think even in 19th C. it was known to be synonymous.

A.rulei is an endangered rarity from New Caledonia. According to the "Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australa" by Roger Spencer 1995:

"At the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, near the Temple-of the Winds, there is a fine 15m tall specimen of Araucaria laubenfelsii Corbasson with extraordinary pendulous arching branches upturned at the tips. This is probably one of few of these remarkable trees in cultivation. Acquired...as A.rulei F. Muell,it was tentatively identified by Dr Laubenfels as this species. Another similar specimen may be seen at the old Coles Nursery site, Belgrave,although this could be a different species. It is possible that both of these trees have retained juvenile or intermediate leaves...a feature that complicates identification."

I wonder whether this may be the case with Monserrate's A.rulei?


Rulei is gone. Must have disappeared very early, because I have no 20th C. references. Maybe it just morphed into a more familiar name as identities were better understood.

Spencer continues:
"...A.rulei F. Muell is listed in nineteenth-century nursery catalogues but no mature cultivated specimens have been identified with certainty. This species was discovered by Mr W. Duncan, a botanical collector for Mr John Rule of Rule's Nursery in Richmond, Melbourne...Young specimens about 2m tall and showing the typical robust mature foliage, somewhat intermediate between A.columnaris and A.araucana, can be seen at Geelong Botanic Gardens..."

Spencer then lists locations of plantings and seed distributions of positively identified A.rulei made in the 1980s in SE Australia.


Is the listed Podocarpus manii a mispelling of "makii"?

Good question!

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your reply...pity about Agathis rulei vanishing.

Gerald Luckhurst said...

More on Araucaria rulei - just remembered that there was a specimen recorded at Botanic Garden of Coimbra in 1877. Its in a herbarium that I am studying : very thick chunky leaves.