Podocarpus

Here is the rewritten encyclopedia entry about **Podocarpus**, using only the facts from the source article and written in a plain, direct voice.

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**Podocarpus** is a genus of conifers and the largest and most widespread group within the podocarp family (Podocarpaceae). These are evergreen shrubs or trees, typically growing 1 to 25 meters (3 to 82 feet) tall, though some individuals can reach 40 meters (130 feet). Their cones are unusual: two to five cone scales fuse together and swell into a fleshy, brightly colored, berry-like structure when mature. This attracts birds, which eat the cones and later disperse the seeds in their droppings. According to *Plants of the World Online*, there are 116 accepted species, though other authorities recognize between 97 and 107 species, depending on how species boundaries are drawn.

Several species are grown as ornamentals in parks and large gardens. One cultivar, ‘County Park Fire’, has received the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit.

**Etymology** The name comes from the Greek *poús* (foot) and *karpós* (fruit).

**Common Names** Various species are known as “yellowwood” or “pine.” Examples include the plum pine (*Podocarpus elatus*) and the Buddhist pine (*Podocarpus macrophyllus*).

**Description** Podocarpus species are evergreen woody plants, mostly trees but sometimes shrubs. The tallest trees can reach 40 meters. Some shrubby types have a decumbent (low-growing) habit. Primary branches grow in pseudowhorls around the trunk. Bark may be scaly or fibrous and peeling in vertical strips. Terminal buds are distinctive, with bud scales that are often overlapping and sometimes spreading.

Leaves are simple, flattened, and either stalkless or with a short petiole. They are arranged spirally, though some shoots may have subopposite leaves. Leaf shape is usually linear-lanceolate or linear-elliptic, but can be broader lanceolate, ovate, or nearly elliptic in some species. Juvenile leaves are often larger than adult leaves but similar in shape. Leaves are leathery (coriaceous) with a clear midrib. Stomata are usually confined to the underside of the leaf, forming two bands around the midrib.

Most species are dioecious—male pollen cones and female seed cones grow on separate plants—but a few are monoecious. Cones develop from axillary buds and can be solitary or clustered. Pollen cones are long and catkin-like, either stalkless or on a short stalk. Each consists of a slender axis with many spirally arranged microsporophylls; each microsporophyll has two pollen sacs at its base. The pollen grains are bisaccate (have two air bladders).

Seed cones are highly modified. At maturity, the few cone scales swell and fuse together. The cone is stalked and often solitary. It contains two to five scales, but only the uppermost one (or rarely two) is fertile, each bearing one ovule at its tip. The infertile basal scales fuse and swell into a succulent, usually brightly colored receptacle. Each cone typically holds one seed, sometimes two or rarely more. The seed sits at the tip of the receptacle and is completely covered by a fleshy modified scale called an epimatium, which is usually green but may be bluish or reddish in some species.

**Distribution** Podocarpus is naturally found across much of Africa, Asia, Australia, Central and South America, and several South Pacific islands. In the Americas, its range extends from southern Chile north to Mexico; in the Asia-Pacific region, from New Zealand north to Japan. As recently as the Late Pliocene, it also grew in the northern United States.

The genus and its family, Podocarpaceae, were originally endemic to the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, which broke apart between 105 and 45 million years ago into Africa, South America, India, Australia-New Guinea, New Zealand, and New Caledonia. Podocarpus is a characteristic tree of the Antarctic flora, which evolved in the cool, moist climate of southern Gondwana. As the continents drifted northward and became drier and hotter, podocarps and other Antarctic flora retreated to humid regions, especially in Australia, where sclerophyll genera like *Acacia* and *Eucalyptus* became dominant. The flora of Malesia (the Malay Peninsula, Indonesia, Philippines, and New Guinea) is largely derived from Asia but includes many Gondwanan elements, such as other Podocarpaceae genera (*Dacrycarpus*, *Dacrydium*, *Falcatifolium*, *Nageia*, *Phyllocladus*, and the Malesian endemic *Sundacarpus*), as well as *Agathis* in the Araucariaceae.

**Classification** The genus is divided into two subgenera, *Podocarpus* and *Foliolatus*, based on cone and seed features.

In subgenus *Podocarpus*, the cone lacks lanceolate bracts at its base, and the seed usually has an apical ridge. Species are found in the temperate forests of Tasmania, New Zealand, and southern Chile, with a few in tropical highlands of Africa and the Americas.

In subgenus *Foliolatus*, the cone is subtended by two lanceolate bracts (“foliola”), and the seed usually lacks an apical ridge. These species are tropical and subtropical, concentrated in eastern and southeastern Asia and Malesia, overlapping with subgenus *Podocarpus* in northeastern Australia and New Caledonia.

Species within the Podocarpaceae have been reclassified several times based on genetic and physiological evidence. Many species once placed in *Podocarpus* now belong to other genera. Classification schemes have moved species between *Nageia* and *Podocarpus*. In 1969, de Laubenfels split the large genus *Podocarpus* into *Dacrycarpus*, *Decussocarpus* (later corrected to the valid *Nageia*), *Prumnopitys*, and *Podocarpus*. Some species now in *Afrocarpus* were formerly in *Podocarpus*, such as *A*.