This plant fagriculture, livestock and fire. Here is where they thrive: The islands of New Caledonia are remarkable for their number of plant species, plant endemics, and the ancient character of much of the flora. New Caledonia is located in the southwest Pacific Ocean about 1,200 kilometers (km) east of Australia and 1,500 km northeast of New Zealand. The main island of Grande Terre runs in a north-south orientation and is 16,372 square kilometers (km2). Unlike the much smaller neighboring islands, which are volcanic and recent in origin, Grand Terre is an original piece of Gondwanaland. It separated from Australia 85 million years ago and has maintained its current isolation from other landmasses for more than 55 million years. Isolation and an ancient source of plant life are major factors leading to the island's diverse plant life, but they are not the only factors. Grand Terre has an extremely diverse soil substrate, with ultramafics forming about one-third of the island. It is also very diverse topographically and climatically. Grand Terre is the only high island of New Caledonia, with a mountain chain running down the center of the island and five peaks exceeding 1,500 meters (m). Many smaller ranges and valleys run counter to the island's north-south orientation. The New Caledonia dry forests ecoregion is found only on the western side of Grand Terre, where the average annual rainfall is much lower than on the rest of the island. Rainfall on Grand Terre is highly seasonal. Trade winds bring the rains, which usually come from the east. The western side of the island receives about 1,200 millimeters (mm) of rainfall annually, although in some years it may be as low as 250 mm. However, because of the orographic nature of the island's rainfall, the average annual rainfall is about 2,000 mm for the low-elevation eastern Grand Terre and 2,000-4,000 mm at high elevations. Dry forest vegetation used to make up most of the lowland portions (below 300 m) of the western side of Grand Terre, although this ecoregion has been greatly reduced and exists mainly in disjunct forest patches. In the natural state, these dry forests are dense, contain many vines, and reach heights of 5-15 m. The vegetation is often dominated by Acacia spirorbis and Leucaena leucocephala (an introduced species). Other dominants include Rubiaceae of the genera Canthium and Gardenia, Pittosporum, Dodonaea, and Premna, and Verbenaceae genera. The dry forests also have a thick, unstratified understory of shrubs and grasses. Near the coast the typical dry forests give way to stands of Cycas circinalis, the only gymnosperm typical of the ecoregion. There is only about 2% of the dry forest left. Thus there are numerous plants, trees, etc on the critically endangered list. Therefore obtaining seeds, etc is going to be extremely difficult. I will continue searching for you guys, Linda Here is a link that might be useful: Tree

ugh that totally sucks, sorry you had to go through. seems to be a theme already this season. well a different kind of thievery for me really. someone stole my potted rosemary and a small juniper from my front porch and also pulled up some emerging ferns from my front bed. the ferns were already here when i moved in, but still it sucks! if they wanted some, alls they had to do was ask!

Hello all, I have been trying to find some seeds of Captaincookia margaretae. I finaly found some, I thought, but instead I just found a stinking, rotten THIEF. BEWARE! Do not even consider sending money to Cycad Heaven nursery. As soon as I sent my money this nursery started with the excuses. They have stolen my money. David Niba is the scumbag who stole my money instead of providing the seeds he promised. I hope this prevents him from cheating anyone else. They are advertising a large number of rare cycad seeds. Regards, P.KH4

Hi Ron - been a while since we mentioned captioncookia and lamiodendron - have you had any luck trying to find them? I've been through most of the botanic gardens on the web and even Kew doesn't have them. I tried writing to PNG botanic gardens for Lamiodendron - and to Neumea but didn't get a reply http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.endemia.nc/plante/fiche.php%3Fcode%3D610&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dcaptaincookia%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG has quite a few pics of seedlings, etc, but no contacts (or none that want to reply) How's your hunting for this magnificent plant?