Livistona Australis Mart.

Curtis's Botanical Magazine

Vol 103, nº 6274 (1877)

Livistona australis

Native of Eastern Temperate Australia

L. australis, Mart. Hist. Palm., 241 cum. tab. ; Wendland and Drude, palm. Austral in Linnea, vol xxxix. p. 232, t. iii f. 5 ; F. Muell. Fragr. Phyt. Aust. vol v. p. 49

Corypha australis , Br. Prodr. p. 128

This graceful palm was for many years one of the greatest ornaments of the Palm House at Kew, rearing its massive head of bright green foliage supported on a rich brown caudex, high above all the other palms except Cocos plumosa and Caryota urens. During the present year having reached the roof on the west side of the centre, it was felled and replaced by a Phoenix dactylifera which will take years to assume the same proportions, and will never rival it in beauty.

Livistona australis is the most southern palm of the Australian continent, reaching the snowy range in lat. 37º 30' S. when its trunk attains 80ft. in height, and extending thence along the west coast to the Illawara River, in lat. 34º 45' S. It flowered annually at Kew, in the spring months, for many years. The fruits I have received from Mr. Hill, of the Brisbane Botanical Gardens ; they resemble specimens brought by Brown, preserved in the British Museum, except in having a thicker and harder pericarp.

[The specimen figured in the Botanical Magazine was raised at Kew from seeds collected by Cunningham probably at Illawarra. ]

Livistona australis Mart.

Historia Naturalis Palmarum 3: 241. 1838.