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Silver beech

Lophozonia menziesii (accepted: Nothofagus menziesii) · Nothofagaceae

Your local evidence lens

Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge

Set a ZIP to compare this record with state distribution, native range, USDA hardiness, and invasive records.

A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.

1. Fire evidence and conditions

Fire evidence: Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
Fire-performance conditions: No test or rating condition is normalized.
Fire ecology context: No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
Placement evidence: 0 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
Evidence regions: Global; New Zealand
Maintenance: No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.

2. Why this plant is relevant here

State distribution: No state distribution is normalized.
Native range: No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
Introduced / established: No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
USDA hardiness: No hardiness value is normalized.

3. Legal, ecological, and broader status

Legal-list status: Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
Seed-list status: Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
Reported invasive here: No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
Broader regional context: Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
Federal context: Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.

How to read this page

The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.

Silver beech (Lophozonia menziesii) — Photo: (c) Joe Dillon, some rights reserved (CC BY) (CC BY), via iNaturalist. Species-typical, not necessarily this cultivar.

Form: tree
Region: New Zealand
Rated in: Global; New Zealand
Uses: timber
Family: Nothofagaceae
Evidence: 11 cited sources

The evidence

Grouped by what each source concluded. Primary evidence rated the plant itself (a lab, field program, or original curation); corroboration compiled or republished another source's rating and resolves to its root lineage.

Avoids (1)

A quantitative assessment of shoot flammability for 60 tree and shrub species — International Journal of Wildland Fire (Wyse, Perry, O'Connell, Holland, Wright, Hosted, Whitelock, Geary, Maurin, Curran) · 2016 · original source Primary evidence Lab-tested lineage: lincoln-nz-tree

“High flammability category (Fig. 2)”

Shoot category from the paper's cluster analysis; samples were air-dried for 24 hours before testing.

Listed without a rating (10)

FLAMITS: FLAMmability plant traiTS database — Dryad / Global Ecology and Biogeography · Dryad version 9 · original source Corroboration Trait database lineage: meta-aggregator

10 cited rows from this source; its identity, lineage and tier are stated once.
- “ignition frequency (%): 100” · score 100 (FLAMITS — ignition frequency (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 8; Ignitability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Alam2020-1; sampling ND. Primary study Alam2020: Alam, M. A., Wyse, S. V., Buckley, H. L., Perry, G. L. W., Sullivan, J. J., Mason, N. W. H., . . . Curran, T. J. (2020). Shoot flammability is decoupled from leaf flammability, but controlled by leaf functional traits. Journal of Ecology, 108, 641-653.
- “maximum sample temperature (°C): 679.38” · score 679.38 (FLAMITS — maximum sample temperature (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 24; Combustibility measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Alam2020-1; sampling ND. Primary study Alam2020: Alam, M. A., Wyse, S. V., Buckley, H. L., Perry, G. L. W., Sullivan, J. J., Mason, N. W. H., . . . Curran, T. J. (2020). Shoot flammability is decoupled from leaf flammability, but controlled by leaf functional traits. Journal of Ecology, 108, 641-653.
- “burning duration (s): 47” · score 47 (FLAMITS — burning duration (s))
  
  FLAMITS record 40; Sustainability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Alam2020-1; sampling ND. Primary study Alam2020: Alam, M. A., Wyse, S. V., Buckley, H. L., Perry, G. L. W., Sullivan, J. J., Mason, N. W. H., . . . Curran, T. J. (2020). Shoot flammability is decoupled from leaf flammability, but controlled by leaf functional traits. Journal of Ecology, 108, 641-653.
- “estimated burnt biomass (%): 40” · score 40 (FLAMITS — estimated burnt biomass (%))
  
  FLAMITS record 56; Consumability measurement; plant part branches; fuel all; predrying yes; device grill; site Alam2020-1; sampling ND. Primary study Alam2020: Alam, M. A., Wyse, S. V., Buckley, H. L., Perry, G. L. W., Sullivan, J. J., Mason, N. W. H., . . . Curran, T. J. (2020). Shoot flammability is decoupled from leaf flammability, but controlled by leaf functional traits. Journal of Ecology, 108, 641-653.
- “temperature at smoke (°C): 124.52” · score 124.52 (FLAMITS — temperature at smoke (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 8457; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Mason2016-3; sampling summer. Primary study Mason2016: Mason, N. W. H., Frazao, C., Buxton, R. P., & Richardson, S. J. (2016). Fire form and function: evidence for exaptive flammability in the New Zealand flora. Plant Ecology, 217, 645-659.
- “temperature at smoke (°C): 211.65” · score 211.65 (FLAMITS — temperature at smoke (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 8458; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Mason2016-3; sampling summer. Primary study Mason2016: Mason, N. W. H., Frazao, C., Buxton, R. P., & Richardson, S. J. (2016). Fire form and function: evidence for exaptive flammability in the New Zealand flora. Plant Ecology, 217, 645-659.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 239.34” · score 239.34 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 8672; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Mason2016-3; sampling summer. Primary study Mason2016: Mason, N. W. H., Frazao, C., Buxton, R. P., & Richardson, S. J. (2016). Fire form and function: evidence for exaptive flammability in the New Zealand flora. Plant Ecology, 217, 645-659.
- “temperature at flaming (°C): 401.36” · score 401.36 (FLAMITS — temperature at flaming (°C))
  
  FLAMITS record 8673; Ignitability measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Mason2016-3; sampling summer. Primary study Mason2016: Mason, N. W. H., Frazao, C., Buxton, R. P., & Richardson, S. J. (2016). Fire form and function: evidence for exaptive flammability in the New Zealand flora. Plant Ecology, 217, 645-659.
- “temperature increase rate (°C/s): 27.65” · score 27.65 (FLAMITS — temperature increase rate (°C/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 8887; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Mason2016-3; sampling summer. Primary study Mason2016: Mason, N. W. H., Frazao, C., Buxton, R. P., & Richardson, S. J. (2016). Fire form and function: evidence for exaptive flammability in the New Zealand flora. Plant Ecology, 217, 645-659.
- “temperature increase rate (°C/s): 15.16” · score 15.16 (FLAMITS — temperature increase rate (°C/s))
  
  FLAMITS record 8888; Combustibility measurement; plant part leaves; fuel live; predrying yes; device muffle furnace; site Mason2016-3; sampling summer. Primary study Mason2016: Mason, N. W. H., Frazao, C., Buxton, R. P., & Richardson, S. J. (2016). Fire form and function: evidence for exaptive flammability in the New Zealand flora. Plant Ecology, 217, 645-659.

Fire-resistant trees instead

Post oak
Quercus stellata

Red oak
Quercus rubra

Gambel Oak
Quercus gambelii

Basswood
Tilia americana

Oak
Quercus spp.

Dahurian larch
Larix gmelinii

Fire-resistant trees listed above

Last verified 2026-08-23. JSON (CC BY 4.0)

Profiles: GBIF · iNaturalist · Wikidata ·

Lophozonia menziesii (Silver beech). FireApproved. https://fireapproved.com/plants/lophozonia-menziesii/. Last verified 2026-08-23.