Fuscospora truncata (Colenso) Heenan & Smissen

Large tree, 24–30(–36) m high; trunk straight and cylindrical, 0.6–1.2(–1.8) m diameter, basal flanges and root buttresses often developed; crown massive, spreading. Young branchlets terete, grooved, red to red-brown, with whitish pubescence. Stipules caducous, peltate, entire or unevenly bilobed, 3.5–8.0 mm long, narrow-oblanceolate to linear-oblong. Leaf lamina 13.0–43 × 8–30 mm, broadly ovate to sub-orbicular, coriaceous, veins distinct; domatia absent; adaxially glossy green, glabrescent; abaxially lighter glossy green, glabrescent; margin coarsely toothed, teeth sub-acute to obtuse, shortly ciliate in sinuses; apex obtuse to truncate; base cuneate; petiole 2.5–4 mm long, pubescent. Staminate inflorescences, 4–7/branchlet, on peduncles 1.5–7.5 mm long; 1–3 flowers/dichasium, sessile or on short pedicels to 1.0 mm long; perianth campanulate sometimes asymmetic, 2.5–4.5 mm long, hairy, stramineous, 4 or 5 prominent obtuse to acute lobes, margin ciliate. Stamens 9–14; filaments 3.0–4.5 mm long, hairy; anthers 2.0–3.5 mm long, glabrous to sparsely hairy, red, yellow or dark orange. Pistillate inflorescences 2–5/branchlet, sessile; dichasium ovoid with 3 sessile flowers/cupule, trimerous and dimerous, sparsely hairy. Mature cupule 7–9 mm long; valves 4, broadly triangular, coriaceous, resinous, glabrous to strigulose, apex acute to subacute; lamellae 3/valve, subacute to obtuse. Nut 7.5–10 × 4–6.5 mm, triquetrous or lenticular, sparsely hairy to hairy, red-brown to brown.

Bark and wood: Bark on young trees smooth, thin and ash-grey; bark on old trees thick, fibrous, scaled and fissured, dark slate-grey to almost black. Sapwood light yellow-brown when fresh; heartwood light pink to light brown when fresh.

Juvenile plants: Leaves often slightly smaller than adult leaves, ovate to broad ovate, more coarsely toothed, often red, brown, or red speckled.

Most similar to Fuscospora fusca, distinguished from that species by coriaceous leaves with blunt teeth that are barely twisted and also with the lamina tapering equally to the base whereas F. fusca has leaves with apiculate lamina teeth that are noticeably twisted and with an oblique lamina base. Also, hard beech never has domatia whereas red beech leaves commonly have 1 or 2 fringed domatia in the axils of the midrib and lower secondary veins on the abaxial side of the lamina. Hard beech often, but not always, has truncate leaf apices.

Altitudinal range, sea-level–941 m a.s.l. (at Mt Honokawa, Raukūmara Range). Lowland to montane forest. Mostly found in association with other tree species in mixed broadleaf-conifer forests and with other beech species; forming localised pure stands on favourable sites within the forest, mostly on ridge crests, knolls, and steep slopes of a warm northerly aspect.

Flowering: Sep.–Dec. (mast seeding)