Funded via the Global Botanic Garden Fund. Project completed in 2022

Habitat recreation of Blue Mountains Pine (Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii)

Project goal

The main objective was to build a kind of mini-cliff under a small waterfall, so that the Blue Mountains pine habitat would be recreated and the plants adapt to it. The water would come from a new small pond, placed at a higher level.

Key achievements

The news of the BGCI grant and the completion of the implementation of the project were published on the Arboretum website and on the corresponding Instagram and Facebook accounts. A communication will be sent to various media as well in the next months. It will inform them of the news of the project and its implementation, along with the other improvements made in the arboretum. On October 27, an email was sent to the New South Wales authorities responsible for the protection of the Blue Mountains pine tree. In that message, the project was explained and the arboretum became available in case it could be of any help to the species conservation program.

The species Pherosphaera fitzgeraldii was included on October 29 in an update of the Arboretum / Pinetum Lucus Augusti taxon list in PlantSearch database. Finally, the news about the grant was added last June as an additional merit to an administrative procedure that is expected to allow the arboretum to become established and expand the available land in the short term.

Over the next few months, several species of Podocarpaceae (genera Diselma, Podocarpus, Phyllocladus…) and other similar species will be planted in the area between the two ponds.