Greek nothos—false, fagus—beech.

Evergreen or occasionally deciduous trees and shrubs. Buds small, ovoid. Leaves alternate, stalked and smaller than those of the European Beech. Male flowers mostly 1 or few, perianth with 4-6 lobes, stamens mostly 6 to 40. Female flowers 1-3, surrounded by a scaly cup; styles 3. Fruit coat with scales, nuts 3 per cup.

A single genus of the southern hemisphere with a rich fossil record; generally considered an excellent example of a genus with Gondwanan distribution. Sometimes previously placed in the family Fagaceae.

Fresh seed.

Valuable timber trees of the southern hemisphere.

Fruit a cup with 1-3 nuts; flowers in small clusters, not in catkins or heads.

A small collection of Nothofagus may be seen at 'Pirianda' in the Victorian Dandenongs. In addition to those species described, the collection includes two deciduous South American species, N. obliqua from Chile and Argentina (specimen about 10 m tall in 1984; there is another outside the Geology building of the ANU campus, Canberra) and N. procera, also from Chile and Argentina (specimen about 5 m tall in 1984), as well as the evergreen N. truncata, Hard Beech, from New Zealand (specimen about 16 m tall in 1984). The old Taylor & Sangster Nursery site at Mt Macedon has the Antarctic Beech, N. moorei from NSW & Qld (7-10 m tall in 1983). Eight species are grown at Mt Lofty Botanic Garden, Adelaide. The Tasmanian Arboretum, Eugenana near Spreyton, 10 km from Devonport, has planted 200 trees of Nothofagus, the fastest growing being the Chilean species. Sixteen species were represented in the Gondwanan Tree collection. In New South Wales, the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden Mount Tomah has at least 8 species successfully established since 1985 (N. procera over 12 m tall).

A temperate and tropical southern hemisphere genus of 34 species with a strong Gondwanan distribution in Australia & Tas (3 species), New Zealand, Papua New Guinea (16 species), New Caledonia and S America .

Jones (1986), Poole (1987), Philipson & Philipson (1988), Hill & Read (1991).

Source: Spencer, R. (1997). Fagaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 2. Flowering plants. Dicotyledons. Part 1. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.