beds. The climate at that time was most likely as cool as or cooler than it is at Melaleuca today (an average yearly temperature of 11.5 °C, with the coldest month having an average minimum of 4.5 °C and the warmest month an average maximum of 20 °C), and possibly wetter (more than 2400 mm of precipitation annually). Distribution and habitat The entire population of Lomatia tasmanica consists of around 300 plants in an area less than 1.2 km long in southwestern Tasmania. The climate is wet, receiving an average total of 1700 mm of rain each year, and all plants grow within of a river or creek. L. tasmanica mainly grows in rainforest or mixed forest made up of trees high such as myrtle beech (Lophozonia cunninghamii), celery-top pine (Phyllocladus aspleniifolius), southern sassafras (Atherosperma moschatum), leatherwood (Eucryphia lucida), satinwood (Nematolepis squamea), blue-green tea tree (Leptospermum glaucescens), and horizontal scrub (Anodopetalum biglandulosum), as well as understory species such as thyme archeria (Archeria serpyllifolia), native plum (Cenarrhenes nitida), sweet-scented trochocarpa (Trochocarpa gunnii), Raukaua gunnii, white waratah (Agastachys odorata), climbing heath (Prionotes cerinthoides), hard water fern (Parablechnum wattsii), and brickmaker's sedge (Gahnia grandis). Scattered Smithton peppermint (Eucalyptus nitida) tower over the canopy. Profuse moss and fern growth highlights the wetness of the habitat. L. tasmanica also extends into neighbouring dry sclerophyll forest composed of Smithton peppermint over an understory of blue-green tea tree on more elevated areas. Finally, it grows in a dense riverbank scrubland with species such as silver banksia (Banksia marginata), mānuka (Leptospermum scoparium), prickly-leaved wattle (Acacia verticillata), swamp honey-myrtle (Melaleuca squamea), scented paperbark (M. squarrosa), horizontal scrub, and Smithton peppermint over a dense low understory of Bauera rubioides, Gahnia grandis, Epacris aff. heteronema, scrambling coral fern (Gleichenia microphylla), Calorophus erostris, lesser wire rush (Empodisma minus), and button grass (Gymnoschoenus sphaerocephalus). Ecology Lomatia tasmanica grows in a climate of infrequent bushfires. Fieldwork in the early 2000s established that the area had last been burnt in 1934. Most plants were around 60 years old, though some were estimated at up to 300 years old. The area in which it grows is federally protected, lying wholly within the Southwest National Park. Although all the plants are technically separate in that each has its own root system, they are collectively considered to be one of the oldest living plant clones. Each plant's lifespan is approximately 300 years, but the plant has been cloning