Araucaria bernieri

J.Buchholz 1949

Common names

Bernier's araucaria (Silba 1986).

Taxonomic notes

Synonym: Eutassa bernieri (J.T. Buchholz) de Laub. 2009. A molecular analysis places Araucaria bernieri into the clade of small-leaved species of New Caledonia, along with A. schmidii, A. scopulorum, and A. subulata (Gaudeul et al. 2012).

Description

Monoecious evergreen trees to 50 m tall with a narrowly columnar crown. Bark gray, exfoliating in thin strips. Twigs in one plane, forming a wide U-like pattern, 4-6 mm in diameter. Juvenile leaves triangular, needle-like, apex sharply acute, to 7 mm long, relatively thick. Adult leaves scale-like, imbricate, triangular, keeled, 2-3.5 × 1.5-2.5 mm, apex incurved. Pollen cone bluish-white, cylindrical, 40-90 mm × 8-16 mm, scales lanceolate, microsporophylls triangular, pollen sacs 4-6. Seed cone glaucous, 10 × 7.5-8 cm, recurved lip of scale raised, bracts to 5 mm long. Seeds to 3 cm long, nuts ovate, wings broadly rounded. Germination epigeal (Silba 1986).

Distribution and Ecology

New Caledonia: Grande Terre, restricted to the extreme S and on uplands along the SE coast, south of 21.5°S (Farjon et al. 2014).

This map shows herbarium records of Araucaria species native to New Caledonia. Letter corresponds to first letter of species epithet (A. goroensis coded as A. muelleri, see A. goroensis for discussion) with different colors for species having same first letter; A. bernieri is light green. Click on an icon for further information. Distribution data from GBIF (2020.03.30), edited to remove duplicates.

The IUCN reports that this species is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild due to a small population size (fewer than 10,000 mature individuals) that is suffering ongoing and projected continuing population declines.

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2023.02.23.

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2023.02.23.

Observations

No data as of 2023.02.23.

Remarks

Citations

Buchholz, J. T. 1949. Additions to the coniferous flora of New Caledonia. Bull. Mus. Natl. Hist. Nat. (Paris), Sér. 2, 21(2):279–286. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2020.02.10.

Farjon, A., M. Gardner and P. Thomas. 2017. Conifer Database. In: Roskov Y., Abucay L., Orrell T., Nicolson D., Bailly N., Kirk P.M., Bourgoin T., DeWalt R.E., Decock W., De Wever A., Nieukerken E. van, Zarucchi J., Penev L., eds. (2017). Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life, 30th April 2017. Digital resource at www.catalogueoflife.org/col. Species 2000: Naturalis, Leiden, the Netherlands. ISSN 2405-8858.

Gaudeul, M., G. Rouhan, M.F. Gardner, and P.M. Hollingsworth. 2012. AFLP markers provide insights into the evolutionary relationships and diversification of New Caledonian Araucaria species (Araucariaceae). American Journal of Botany 99(1):68-81.

See also

Association Endemia, a site devoted to New Caledonian species. Has excellent photos, a range map, and other information. In French.

The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.