Araucaria schmidii

de Laub. 1969

Common names

Schmid araucaria (Silba 1986).

Taxonomic notes

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

Description

Monoecious evergreen trees to 30 m tall, with numerous ascending branches. Bark gray, exfoliating in long strips 10-15 cm wide. Primary branches spreading, pinnate, in a multi-stemmed U-like pattern. Twigs in 2 ranks, 6-9 mm in diameter. Juvenile leaves lanceolate, keeled, 18 × 2 mm, 1.5 mm thick, needle-like, pungent, apex incurved. Adult leaves imbricate, lanceolate, keeled, 7-10 × 1.5-2 mm, needle-like, apex incurved. Seed cones not seen. Germination reportedly epigeal (Silba 1986).

Distribution and Ecology

NE New Caledonia: Mt. Panie, rare, 1500-1630 m (Silba 1986).

This map shows herbarium records of Araucaria species native to New Caledonia. Letter corresponds to first letter of species epithet with different colors for species having same first letter; A. schmidii is brown (A. goroensis coded as A. muelleri, see A. goroensis for discussion). 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 in a restricted area which is therefore vulnerable to chance destructive events.

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

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.

Laubenfels, D.J. de. 1969. Trav. Lab. Forest. Toulouse 1, 8(5):2.

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.