Nothofagus

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Nothofagus
Nothofagus obliqua
Nothofagus obliqua
Plant Info
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Division: Magnoliophyta
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Fagales
Family: Nothofagaceae
Kuprian.
Genus: Nothofagus
Blume

Species
See text
Shoots, leaves, and cupules of N. obliqua
N. alpina, rauli beech

Nothofagus, also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of about 35 species of trees and shrubs native to the temperate oceanic to tropical Southern Hemisphere in southern South America (Chile, Argentina) and Australasia (east & southeast Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand, New Guinea and New Caledonia).

In the past they were included in the family Fagaceae, but genetic tests by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group revealed them to be genetically distinct, and they are now included in a family their own, the Nothofagaceae.

The leaves are toothed or entire, evergreen or deciduous. The fruit is a small, flattened or triangular nut, borne in cupules containing 2-7 nuts.

Nothofagus species are used as food plants by the larva of hepialid moths of the genus Aenetus including A. eximia and A. virescens.

Taxonomy

The genus is classified in the following sections:[1]

Sect. Brassospora (type Nothofagus brassi)
Sect. Fuscospora (type Nothofagus fusca)
Sect. Lophozonia (type Nothofagus menziesii)
Sect. Nothofagus (type Nothofagus antarctica)

References

Template:Commons

  1. Nothofagus website (in French)