Cone on a plant in habitat at Tamborine National Park, Queensland [C.J. Earle, 1996.03.11]. L. peroffskyana produces one of the largest of all cycad cones, rivaled only by Encephalartos transvenosus (Jones 1993).
Cone on a plant in habitat at Tamborine National Park, Queensland [C.J. Earle, 1996.03.11]. L. peroffskyana produces one of the largest of all cycad cones, rivaled only by Encephalartos transvenosus (Jones 1993).
Lepidozamia peroffskyana
Burrawang [Dhurak] (Bonta and Osborne 2005).
Australia: roughly between Gympie, Queensland and Taree, New South Wales. Found in rainforest and wet sclerophyll forest, i.e., sites where fire is uncommon to rare. Elevations range from sea level to 1000 m. Soils are well-structured loams. Diurnal temperatures range from 19-32°C summer to 6-22°C winter. Rainfall, 1500 mm, is predominantly during the summer (Jones 1993).
Trunk to 7 m tall and 40 cm diameter. Cones may weigh 45 kg (Jones 1993).
A popular ornamental (the type plant was found in the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden!) (Jones 1993). Seeds are large and numerous, so aboriginal use for food seems likely.
It grows "wild" (in a rather well-maintained context) in the Lepidozamia Grove, Tamborine National Park, south Queensland. Have also seen at the Sydney Botanical Garden.
Named for Count Peroffsky, benefactor of the St. Petersburg Botanical Garden (Jones 1993).
Bonta, Mark and Roy Osborne. 2005. Cycads in the vernacular, a compendium of local names. http://www.cycad.org/documents/Bonta-Osborne-Cycads-Vernacular.pdf, accessed 2017.12.29.
Last Modified 2023-03-03
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