Smith, Microstrobos fitzgeraldii (Podocarpaceae) 
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Figure 1. Locality: 1. Wentworth Falls; 2. Unnamed waterfall 150 m W of 1; 3. Unnamed 
waterfall 100 m W of Gordon Falls; 4. Leura Falls; 5. Katoomba Falls; 6. Bonnie Doon Falls. 
(305443), Horseshoe Falls (302450) and Victoria Falls (Mt Wilson sheet, grid ref. 
290512). The total number of plants known to exist in all localities is 203. The 
extreme limits of its distribution lie only 8 km apart. The range in altitude is from 
600 m (bottom of Wentworth Falls) to 900 m (top of Bonnie Doon Falls). 
Habitat requirements 
Thompson (1961) summarized the situations in which specimens had been found: 
“on wet rocks located within the range of the spray of waterfalls”. Most plants are 
found on the eastern side of waterfalls and receive spray carried from the waterfall 
by the prevailing westerly winds in this area. They are never found drenched by the 
main flow of the larger waterfalls (localities 1, 4, 5 and 6 in table 1) but are on either 
side where the spray is lighter in intensity. However, they do occur directly below 
the very small Waterfalls (2 and 3). 
Plants also colonize ledges behind vertically falling water, and ledges which 
receive spray caused by deflection of falling water. As well, they have been recorded 
from inside caves beside waterfalls; these plants do not receive spray from the water¬ 
fall but depend on seepage through permeable strata inside the cave. They can 
occur also on ledges receiving similar seepage but not associated with caves e.g. a 
row of plants extends 30 m westward of site 2. 
No plants have been found in caves which are not close to waterfalls, even if 
they have similar seepage lines. The wet rocks and ledges colonized by Microstrobos 
are always of sandstone; it is never found growing on the shale exposed at the lower 
levels of some of the waterfalls. 
Ecological condition 
At all sites some dead branchlets are found on the shrubs and this is considered 
normal. Many of the plants in the main concentration at the base of the Wentworth 
Falls (National Pass level), however, carry extensive areas of dead leaves, and those 
closest to the falls have branches covered in slime and particulates. This may 
reflect the gradual drying up of this area and pollution of the creek by raw sewage 
and septic tank drainage. Some plants here have extensive areas of exposed roots, 
