Lagarostrobos franklinii

Botanical Description

Lagarostrobos franklinii is an evergreen tree with a more or less conical or pyramidal crown when young, becoming spreading, with large ascending main branches with age; it can grow around 25 metres tall, occasionally reaching 30metres, with a trunk up to 150cm in diameter, exceptionally to 200cm[ 2124 Title A Handbook of the World's Conifers Vol. 1 (Second revised edition) Publication Author Farjon A. Publisher Brill; Leiden, The Netherlands Year 2017 ISBN 978 90 04 32449 7 Description ]. The plant is harvested from the wild for local use as a food and source of materials. Huon pine was once the most important timber tree of Tasmania, but its exploitation was unsustainable and resources of good timber trees were exhausted. Today, virtually all large trees have gone, but a few escaped the loggers and are now assidiously protected[ 2124 Title A Handbook of the World's Conifers Vol. 1 (Second revised edition) Publication Author Farjon A. Publisher Brill; Leiden, The Netherlands Year 2017 ISBN 978 90 04 32449 7 Description ] Lagarostrobos franklinii does not meet any criteria for a threatened category, despite massive logging in the past which at one time reduced the population to a fraction of what it must have been prior to European settlement. While this has meant that few large trees remain, the species has shown a very good capacity to recover, much of it through resprouting and layering, and the tree has recovered 80 - 85% of its former area of occupancy The plant is classified as 'Least Concern' in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species(2013)[ 338 Title IUCN Red List of Threatened Species Publication Author Website http://www.iucnredlist.org/ Publisher Year 0 ISBN Description A list of plants under threat and facing possible extinction, usually with brief details of the threats and information on habitat. ].