Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii
species of plant
Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii, commonly known as the Blue Mountains pine or dwarf mountain pine is a critically endangered species of shrubby conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is found only in New South Wales, Australia. The entire natural habitat is in the Blue Mountains, from Katoomba to Wentworth Falls, growing almost exclusively in the splash zones of waterfalls, and on the southern aspect of sandstone nearby.
It was first described by Ferdinand von Mueller in his 1881 work Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae as Dacrydium fitzgeraldii, naming it after its collector, one R. Fitzgerald. It was renamed Microstrobos fitzgeraldii by Lawrie Johnson and Garden in 1951, and Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii by Joseph Dalton Hooker in 1882.
Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii grows as a small shrub to 1 m (3 ft) high. The branchlets droop and bear tiny narrow leaves 2 or 3 mm in length.
Only 7 populations, containing a total of 455 individual plants are known. This conifer may be threatened by habitat loss, due to increased urbanization on the plateau. In the past hundred years, stream water quality has deteriorated, due to urban sprawl in the Blue Mountains.
“Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Pherosphaera, fitzgeraldii and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3023272. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1881, 1951 and 1882.
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This entry incorporates text from “Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.