Pherosphaera hookeriana W.Archer bis

Pherosphaera hookeriana is a shrubby conifer usually found above 1000 m asl in wet moors or beside lakes in the highlands of Tasmania (Grant 2025). Like its Critically Endangered sister species P. fitzgeraldii it is rare in gardens, and historic confusion with the other Tasmanian conifers Diselma archeri and Microcachrys tetragona mean that at least some, and perhaps many plants labelled P. hookeriana are likely to represent these other species. Regular taxonomic machinations in this part of the Podocarpaceae have not helped matters. Certainly, P. hookeriana is the rarest of these three in general cultivation (and probably rarer than P. fitzgeraldii), but even where the genuine article is grown it is still more likely to be labelled under the synonym Microstrobos niphophilus than the correct name P. hookeriana.

Typically restricted to specialist collections, Pherosphaera hookeriana is offered by a few nurseries in Australia and New Zealand, but it requires a cool, moist climate to thrive, and whilst it is a botanical curiosity it is no great beauty. It ought to be quite well suited to cultivation in the UK and Ireland, and the Pacific Northwest of North America, but it seems never to have gained more than a toehold in these areas. Indeed, the introduction of both Pherosphaera species to UK cultivation seems to have passed without obvious record; this is unusual given the very strong interest in conifers that has persisted here since the 19th century, and the near-obsessive detail with which their performance in UK and Irish gardens has been recorded. Perhaps the shrubby nature of these two species dampened enthusiasm. Regardless, there is no mention of either Pherosphaera species (under any name) in the proceedings of the 1931 conifer conference (Chittenden 1932) nor in Conifers in the British Isles (Mitchell 1972) so it is reasonable to summise that neither became established here until the mid-to-late 20th century. Perhaps like many other Australasian plants (including Diselma archeri) they were introduced, or reintroduced, by Milo Talbot, 7th Baron Talbot of Malahide (1912–1973) who created the famous gardens at Malahide Castle near Dublin, Ireland.

In its wild state, Tasmania’s Mt Field National Park has long been considered the dominant stronghold of Pherosphaera hookeriana (Grant 2025) but recent surveys have revealed the Nive River catchment to be just as important an area (J. Marthick pers. comm. 2025). In the most recent IUCN assessment (Thomas 2021) P. hookeriana was assessed as ‘Near Threatened’, despite both its area of occupancy and extent of occurrence being sufficiently small (at the time) to fall within the threshold of Endangered. The principle threats are fires and associated severe droughts as a result of climate change; at the time of the 2021 assessment these events had only had a marginal impact on P. hookeriana populations, but clearly there is potential for catastrophic events that would quickly tip this species into a higher threat category (Thomas 2021).