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Meryta latifolia is a rare evergreen tree from Norfolk Island with very large leaves and separate male and female plants. It is grown mainly in warm, frost-free climates, where it needs shelter from wind and room for its big leaves.
Meryta latifolia, commonly known as broad-leaved meryta or shade tree, is an evergreen tree endemic to Norfolk Island, Australia, where it occurs in subtropical moist forest conditions.
Rare in cultivation, M. latifolia may be grown fairly easily in warm frost-free climates like those of Sydney, Australia, or Florida in the United States. A slightly hardier alternative is the New Zealand Puka tree, M. sinclairii, with huge broad leaves, which can withstand frosts down to -2C once established.
Meryta latifolia occurs only on Norfolk Island, and is considered critically endangered because it is dioecious, having separate male and female plants. The total number of mature individual plants is less than 150, the effective reproductive population limited by the number of surviving female plants, which number approximately 20. It occurs on ten sites on Norfolk Island, but most of these contain only one or two plants and only one site has more than 13. Although one site contains approximately 115 trees, regeneration is not occurring at this site. Continuing declines in the number of mature individuals, and number of locations and subpopulations are projected for several reasons including: lack of formal protection or management programs, the vulnerability of small populations to stochastic disturbance events (e.g. cyclones), ongoing competition with invasive weeds, predation by rats, senescence of over-mature plants, and sex ratio bias.
Meryta brachypoda · Meryta choristantha · Meryta denhamii · Meryta drakeana · Meryta lanceolata · Meryta lucida · Meryta mauruensis · Meryta raiateensis · Meryta salicifolia · Puka · Meryta sonchifolia · Meryta
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Meryta latifolia by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
