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Nothofagus truncata; photograph (c) Christopher Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) CC BY-SA(c) Christopher Stephens, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · observed growing wild · 2026-07-04

Nothofagus truncata (Colenso) Cockayne

Hard beech

Nothofagaceae · New Zealand North, New Zealand South

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Nothofagus truncata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedNothofagus truncata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedNothofagus truncata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedNothofagus truncata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedNothofagus truncata, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedNothofagus truncata, photograph author not stated, no rights reserved 81 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.0°C
Record low -1.5 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
19°C
Jan and Feb at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
1,984mm
12 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
10–41DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Rain spread: 70% of the median year's rain takes 8 months, so no short rainy season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Nothofagus truncata, or hard beech (Māori: tawhairaunui), is a species of tree endemic to New Zealand. Its common name derives from the fact that the timber has a high silica content, making it tough and difficult to saw. Hard beech is a tree up to 30m tall occurring in lowland and lower montane forest from latitude 35°S to 42°30'S, that is, from the north of the North Island southwards to Marlborough and south Westland in the South Island. In Taranaki it forms almost pure stands on the rugged sandstone country there and is partially deciduous, dropping many of its leaves at the end of the winter. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nothofagus truncata", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Nothofagus

Nothofagus, also known as the southern beeches, is a genus of 43 species of trees and shrubs native to the Southern Hemisphere, found across southern South America and eastern and southeast Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and New Caledonia. The species are ecological dominants in many temperate forests in these regions. Some species are reportedly naturalised in Germany and Great Britain. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Nothofagus", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads no short rainy season: 70% of the median year's rain (1,420 mm of 1,956 mm) takes 8 months, May to December. Mean temperature moves 9.0 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: November to June.

Rain

1,956 mm in the median year at the habitat, 1,420 mm of it May to December. Wettest month June at 200 mm, driest month February at 119 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 1,392 mm to 2,796 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 1,984 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 1,956 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, southern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 10 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 8, the highest 90th-percentile month 45).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.0 °C, the absolute minimum -1.5 °C, 56 frost nights in 44 years, 1.3 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.8 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 3.6 °C in July (across the grid cells of the range -0.2 °C to 7.8 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 19.3 °C in February (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.0 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 64 to 67% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected +182 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, southern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Nothofagus truncata through the yearWarmest months January and February, mean daily high 19 °C; coldest month July, mean nightly low 3.6 °C; 1,956 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, southern hemisphere.-5°0°5°10°15°20°25°30°frost24.8° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-1.5° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200250300mm rainDLI 10–41RH 64–67%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 534 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C19 / 17–2119 / 17–2117 / 16–1915 / 13–1712 / 10–1510 / 7–1310 / 7–1210 / 8–1212 / 10–1414 / 12–1516 / 14–1718 / 15–19
Night °C12 / 9–1512 / 9–1511 / 8–148 / 5–126 / 3–104 / 1–94 / 0–84 / 1–85 / 2–97 / 4–108 / 6–1111 / 8–13
Rain mm128 / 86–231119 / 79–165138 / 100–191151 / 104–211167 / 121–236200 / 134–278188 / 128–243181 / 129–238177 / 118–258183 / 126–284155 / 106–239169 / 109–271
DLI41 / 38–4535 / 32–3928 / 25–3120 / 17–2213 / 11–1610 / 8–1312 / 10–1417 / 14–1923 / 20–2631 / 27–3538 / 34–4240 / 36–45
RH %64 / 61–6664 / 62–6765 / 63–6766 / 63–6866 / 64–7067 / 63–7066 / 63–6966 / 63–6966 / 64–6866 / 63–6864 / 62–6765 / 62–67
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 534 grid cells holding the 1672 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 2562:7151 (-38.125, 177.575). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -1.5 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.8 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 534 distinct grid cells holding 1672 of the 1672 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2562:7151 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -38.00_177.500, lapse-corrected +182 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 485 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Zealand North, New Zealand South · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker-41.66, 171.968 · in the densest population, 1226 records (66% of those in range)
Kew's description“tree” · “temperate” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1854 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1672 of them placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 328 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 248 km away. 2 records outside the WCVP native range not used. 182 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1854 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Nothofagus truncata, photograph 1did not loadNothofagus truncata, photograph 2did not loadNothofagus truncata, photograph 3did not loadNothofagus truncata, photograph 4did not loadNothofagus truncata, photograph 5did not loadNothofagus truncata, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (6).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Dicksonia squarrosa Dicksonia squarrosa New Zealand tree fern Photo: CC0, author not statedCoprosma lucida Coprosma lucida Shining Karamū Photo: CC0, author not statedSchefflera digitata Schefflera digitata Pate Photo: CC0, author not statedMyrsine salicina Myrsine salicina Toro Photo: CC BY, Michael BerardozziAstelia solandri Astelia solandri Kowharawhara Photo: CC0, author not statedHymenophyllum dilatatum Hymenophyllum dilatatum Hymenophyllaceae Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Nothofagus 18 in the reference

Nothofagus alessandrii Nothofagus alessandrii Nothofagaceae Photo: CC BY, Cesar OrmazabalNothofagus alpina Nothofagus alpina Rauli Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakNothofagus antarctica Nothofagus antarctica Antarctic beech Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakNothofagus betuloides Nothofagus betuloides Magellan's Beech Photo: CC BY, Sebastián Saiter V.Nothofagus cliffortioides Nothofagus cliffortioides Mountain Beech Photo: CC BY, Rick FieldNothofagus cunninghamii Nothofagus cunninghamii Myrtle beech Photo: CC BY, Eamonn CulhaneNothofagus dombeyi Nothofagus dombeyi Coigue Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz GrzejszczakNothofagus fusca Nothofagus fusca Red beech Photo: CC BY, Saryu Mae 前 朝琉Nothofagus glauca Nothofagus glauca Nothofagaceae Photo: CC BY, Cesar OrmazabalNothofagus gunnii Nothofagus gunnii Tanglefoot Photo: CC BY, Corey O'Brien Nothofagus × leoni Nothofagaceae Nothofagus macrocarpa Nothofagus macrocarpa Nothofagaceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Grzegorz Grzejszczak all 19 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Fagus fusca var. colensoi; Fagus truncata; Fuscospora truncata. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWFOWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Nothofagaceae
Described by
(Colenso) Cockayne
Native to
New Zealand North, New Zealand South
Wild records
1854 in range · 328 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-22
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-22
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-22names fetched 2026-10-22
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 7 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (7 at a botanic garden or arboretum; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-22
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-22NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -38.00_177.500, lapse-corrected +182 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-22
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-22
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 13 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

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