Quercus 'Macedon'

Tree to 20 m or more tall. Young shoots hairless. Leaves variable even on the same tree, mostly thick and tough, oblong to elliptic, dark green and glossy above, hairless below, sometimes with tufts of hair in the vein axils; margin with 3-5 large, often irregular, bristled teeth on each side. Acorns flat-topped, almost level with the top of the cup.

Garden origin

This cultivar is listed by both Lord and Willis in Trees & Shrubs for Australian Gardens and in Simpfendorfer's Trees for SE Australia where it is regarded as either a variant or hybrid of Q. palustris. In 1982 a specimen was collected for the National Herbarium from Firth Park (Forests Commission area S of Kyneton via Tylden, Melway Ref. 243 F10), at the site of Mr Firth's garden. Joe Firth, a forester and keen arboriculturist, was gardener at 'Glencairn' and 'Government Cottage', Mt Macedon; he was later Superintendent of the Macedon Forest Nursery in the period 1921-33. The house at Firth Park is now demolished and the site is a picnic area. In recent years this cultivar has become known as 'Firthii'. A specimen in the National Herbarium of Victoria (probably a different taxon with hard leaves) was collected by P.R.H. St John in 1925 from the Macedon State Nursery and labelled Quercus firthii. It is not known if there is any connection between these plants and it is possible that two different taxa are available under the name 'Macedon'.

Resembling a narrow-leaved Q. palustris but without the deep lobes; sometimes evergreen.

VIC: Creswick (Dept Consn & Nat. Res. Nursery, Oak Gully); Daylesford (Wombat Hill Botanical Gardens ); Emerald (Emerald Lake Park); Kallista (outside Dept of Consn & Nat. Res. Office); Kallista (Village Green); Langwarrin ('Cruden Farm', 29 m in 1993); Mt Macedon ('Forest Glades', about 17-20 m in 1984, 'Durrol', about 17 m in 1988); Tylden (Firth Park, 16.4 m tall in 1989); Woodend (church).

kingdom Plantae
phylum   Tracheophyta
class    Magnoliopsida
superorder     Rosanae
order      Fagales
family       Fagaceae
genus        Quercus L.