Tree of the Week: June 16, 2026

This Tree of the Week is a giant! We selected the Antarctic Beech (Nothofagus moorei), which typically grows to a height of up to 160 ft, often with a massive trunk up to 4 ft 11 in in diameter. Antarctic beech grows in cool temperate rainforests from the Barrington Tops plateau in New South Wales, north to the Lamington Plateau and Springbrook Plateau, in southern Queensland, between altitudes of 480 m and 1550 m. It occurs in temperate to cool temperatures and with occasional snowfalls. At one time it was assumed that the Eastern Australian populations of this tree could not reproduce in present-day conditions, except by suckering (asexual reproduction), being remnant forest from a cooler time. It has since been shown that sexual reproduction may occur, but distribution in cool, isolated high-altitude environments at temperate and tropical latitudes is consistent with the theory that the species was more prolific in a cooler age.

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