Flora
Tasmanian temperate rain forests are home to the Antarctic flora. Low elevation rainforests on fertile soils are predominantly broadleaf evergreen forests dominated by Myrtle Beech (Nothofagus cunninghamii) and Southern Sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum). Rainforests on poorer soils, higher elevations, and riparian rainforests are mixed forests with tasmanian endemic conifers. Conifers include the Huon Pine (Lagarostrobos franklinii), and King Billy pine (Athrotaxis selaginoides). Neither tree is actually a pine (Pinus); the Huon pine is a member of the southern hemisphere Podocarp family (Podocarpaceae), and the King Billy pine is a member of the Cypress family (Cupressaceae). Both trees are known for their height and great age. Both are also fine, if slow growing, timber trees, and have been reduced considerably by fire, mining and logging.
Read more about this topic: Tasmanian Temperate Rain Forests
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“A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)