(Hook.f.) Heenan & Smissen
Fuscospora alessandri (Ruil) is a species of plant in the Nothofagaceae family, commonly known as the Southern Beeches. It is endemic to Chile, occurring chiefly in the Chilean matorral ecoregion. It is threatened by habitat loss. The species is protected within Los Ruiles National Reserve. It was known as Nothofagus alessandri prior to 2013.
Deciduous tree that exhibits a straight and gray trunk that can measure up to 30 metres tall. Its leaves are of an ovate, ovate-cordate or lanceolate, with primary veins conspicuous and serrated edge. The flowers are unisexual and inconspicuous, greenish.
The Ruil grows between 37 º 05 and 37 º 50 'south latitude, in the provinces of Talca and Cauquenes, in an area of about 100 square kilometres, but in a total area in 1991 totaled over 3.5 km2. According to 1988 studies, the species is scattered in about 185 land-holdings, each of which have one or two hectares and are surrounded by commercial plantations of Pinus radiata (an introduced species), and agricultural croplands and livestock for survival, hindering the expansion of its habitat. The only place where the species is protected by the state is the National Reserve Ruiles created for the express purpose of protecting it.
- Ruil hybridises with the Red Beech tree (Fuscospora fusca) from New Zealand to form the hybrid species Fuscospora ×eugenananus.
- UICN. (2001). Categorías y Criterios de la Lista Roja de la UICN: Versión 3.1. Comisión de Supervivencia de Especies de la UICN. UICN, Gland, Suiza y Cambridge, Reino Unido. ii + 33 pp.
- González, M. 1998. Nothofagus alessandri. 2006 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 22 August 2007.
- C. Michael Hogan & World Wildlife Fund. 2013. Chilean matorral. ed. M.McGinley. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC
- HEENAN, PETER B.; SMISSEN, ROB D. (2013). "Revised circumscription of Nothofagus and recognition of the segregate genera Fuscospora, Lophozonia, and Trisyngyne (Nothofagaceae)". Phytotaxa 146 (1): 131. doi:10.11646/phytotaxa.146.1.1. Retrieved 31 May 2015.
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