Forest Fires Threaten Pencil Pines
12 May 2008 11.07am
Athrotaxis cupressoides growing at an altitude of about 1190m at Pine Lake, Central Plateau Conservation Area, Tasmania. Photo by James Wood
Pencil pines (Athrotaxis cupressoides and Athrotaxis selaginoides) live in the mountains of western Tasmania. There are only two species of Athrotaxis and they are endemic to Tasmania (meaning they grow wild nowhere else in the world). Athrotaxis selaginoides (King Billy pine) grows in the cold, wet rainforests and has leaves that spread out from the shoot. Athrotaxis cupressoides (pencil pine) grows further up the mountains on the more open areas, and has leaves that are tightly pressed to the stem.
Many plants in Australia are fire-adapted - they have physical features or ways of growing that help them to either survive fires or reproduce quickly after them:
Fire (Opens a new browser window)
Athrotaxis trees however cannot cope well with fire at all. Their restriction to wet montane habitats suggests they evolved during a wetter period of Tasmania's history. They are now struggling to cope with today's drier climate and more frequent fires.
Athrotaxis trees are long-lived and are capable of surviving for over 1000 years. They are very slow-growing though. It can take them 100 years to grow 2 metres tall, and to be large enough to start producing seeds. They produce seeds in flushes, only every five or six years. And if fire sweeps through their forest, it not only kills the trees but also any seeds in the soil. This all means that it takes an Athrotaxis population a long time to recover after a fire.
Serious forest fires in Tasmania in recent decades have wiped out many groups of these already very rare trees. With climate change, warmer weather and shifting rainfall increase the risk of montane fires and pose a serious threat to this unique group of plants.
Chain of dependency
There is a lichen called Roccellinastrum flavescens that lives only on the leaves of Athrotaxis cupressoides. As the lichen doesn't grow anywhere else, if the tree goes extinct, so does the lichen.
Note: You can see both Athrotaxis species growing at Wakehurst Place and at Kew Gardens.
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By valio
Mar 20, 2012 at 20.56
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