Flora of New Zealand Series

Fagus menziesii Hook. f. Ic. Pl. 1844, t. 652.

Silver beech.

Type locality: Dusky Sound. Type: K, "Dusky Bay, Menzies".

Tree up to 30 m. tall; trunk up to 2 m. diam., often buttressed; branchlet-pubescence fulvous. Lvs thick, coriac., rigid; 6-15 × 5-15 mm., on petioles 2-3 mm. long; lamina glab. except on veins below, broad-to deltoid-ovate to suborbicular, doubly crenate, cuneate at base; venation rather obscure; fringed domatia 1-2 in basal vein-axils. Staminate infls 1-4 per branchlet; peduncles 2-3 mm. long, sparsely pubescent, with 1 terminal fl. Per. 5-6 mm. diam., of 2 unequal lobes, each again 2-3-partite. Stamens 30-36; anthers 2-3 mm. long, red above, greenish below, or stramineous. Pistillate infls 1-4 per branchlet, 3-2-fld, on short densely pubescent peduncles. Lateral fls trimerous, terminal dimerous or aborted; stigmas ligulate. Cupule 6-7 mm. long, 4-segmented, with 4-5 rows of gland-tipped processes, subtended by 2 foliaceous bracts. Nuts puberulous, 5 mm. long; lateral triquetrous, 3-winged; terminal flat, 2-winged; wings produced above, gland-tipped.

DIST.: N., S. Lowland to montane forest or as shrub in subalpine scrub, from lat. 37° southwards, except Mount Egmont.

FL. 11-1. FT. 1-3.

Wood pinkish when fresh; bark of trunk furrowed, grey-white, thick, flakes large. Branchlets sts diseased at tips, forming a paniculate mass clad in fulvous-hairy imbricating scales. Cheeseman (Man. N.Z. Fl. 1925, 374) and other authors give the number of stamens as 6-12. Juveniles have us. smaller lvs, rarely bluntly dentate rather than crenate.