The New Zealand Plant Conservation Network

On the Sawpit Gully track near Arrowtown all the beech is Nothofagus solandri var. cliffortioides, but then I came across this one which doesn't look like any of the 5 species....or is it something else?

Here is the familiar Mountain Beech that is very common nearby as a comparison

Well spotted, it looks like a hybrid, although with red or hard beech I couldn't say. All the fusca group hybridise quite readily and the hybrids also produce back hybrids with the parents which is where the not quite right plants like this one come from. Hopefully someone will have a better idea of what is likely in your area.

Looks like Fuscospora cliffortioides × F. fusca but one that is segregating back to F. cliffortioides. As Graham notes introgressive hybrid swarms in Fuscospora are very common, especially in sitez of prolonged disturbance.

When did they change the beech family name? I always thought mountain beech belonged in its own species

The generic changes happened last year and there was a notification of this on the NZPCN website and in Trilepidea - but if you want to read the paper ask Dr Peter Heenan ([email protected]) for a copy. Fuscospora cliffortioides was formally 'reinstated' there as well, though others have been referring to it (under Nothofagus) as a species for years. I gather from Dr Heenan than another paper looking at this species and F. solandri is being prepared.

OK I also "think" I got your question wrong - you say family - did you mean genus ? If so I answered it correctly above. If not...then the Nothofagaceae has been in use for a very long time - but it was (as then conceived) monogeneric - i.e. with just the one genus in it..Nothofagus. The new circumscription confines Nothofagus to South America - in New Zealand our species fall into Lophozonia (one species, L. menziesii) and the rest into Fuscospora - both genera occur in Australia. There are others in New Caledonia - their name escapes me today... :-)

Any reason why its not black beech?

Scalloped edges and acuminate tip give it away for me. At St Arnaud there used to be a good selection of hybrids between Rotoiti Lodge and West Bay, F. solandri was quite distinct from the hybrids. It will be interesting to see what the upcoming paper has to say.