Bowenia spectabilis

Bowenia spectabilis is a species of cycad in the family Stangeriaceae. It is endemic to Queensland, Australia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests.

Bowenia spectabilis
Conservation status
Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
Clade:	Tracheophytes
Division:	Cycadophyta
Class:	Cycadopsida
Order:	Cycadales
Family:	Stangeriaceae
Genus:	Bowenia
Species:	B. spectabilis
Binomial name
Bowenia spectabilis Hook. ex Hook.f.

Range

Bowenia spectabilis is found in northeastern Queensland from the McIlwraith Range on the Cape York Peninsula south to near Tully. It is a rainforest species, growing close to streams and on sheltered slopes in lowland wet sclerophyll forest, but also at an altitude of up to 700 metres in the Atherton Tableland.[2]

Gallery

The 1889 book 'The Useful Native Plants of Australia' records that the yam-like rhizome is used for food by the Indigenous Australians.[3]

• 
  Bowenia spectabilis at Mossman Gorge, Queensland, Australia
• 
  Bowenia spectabilis (typical form) in the Daintree Rainforest in northeast Queensland, Australia
• 
  Bowenia spectabilis at Mossman Gorge, Queensland, Australia
• 
  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland
• 
  Serrulate margin of the pinnae on a wild plant of Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form, at Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, Queensland, Australia
• 
  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland
• 
  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland after recent bushfire, near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland
• 
  Bowenia Lake Tinaroo form in sclerophyll woodland near Lake Tinaroo, Atherton Tableland, far north Queensland

References

1. Hill, K.D. 2003. Bowenia spectabilis. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 20 August 2007.
2. "The Gymnosperm Database". Archived from the original on 11 July 2012. Retrieved 30 November 2010.
3. J. H. Maiden (1889). The useful native plants of Australia : Including Tasmania. Turner and Henderson, Sydney.