Provenance

Provenance is the name given to a very particular location or parent trees.  It is important because these trees will impart particular hereditary characteristics to their progeny that will enable them to flourish in similar parts of the world.

Various seed lots of different provenances have been compared by the UK Forestry Commission to assess their vigour and tolerance to wind exposure, minimum temperatures, wind chill and rapidly falling temperatures.  Variation is considerable.  For example in E. glaucescens a provenance that was only 400ft higher than another had a survival factor eight times greater.  Also there can be considerable variation in hardiness between parent trees of the same species growing within 10ft of one another.

The comments on a particular species hardiness, description and growth rate therefore apply only to the provenances listed in this catalogue and not to species of unknown provenance.

Seed harvested from parent trees in an inverted treeline in certain areas promise to be hardier than those several thousand feet higher. An inverted treeline is where temperatures are much lower in an almost treeless valley than on the mountains above where trees grow.

This knowledge is used to select outstanding provenances wherever possible.

The provenances from New Zealand are not native to that country. They have been selected from established trees growing in Southland.  Some of these areas often experience winter temperatures of down to -20°c.  Altitude is relatively unimportant for an introduced species.  More important is the natural selection that has allowed certain individuals parent trees to survive in a more severe climate than that species experiences in Australia.

Provenance - Parent tree - E. niphophila - Australia