Podocarpaceae Endl.

Podocarpaceae, John Lewis. Flora Zambesiaca 1:1. 1960

Morphology General Habit

Evergreen trees or shrubs, usually dioecious (always in our area)

Morphology Leaves

Leaves linear, lanceolate, narrowly ovate or more rarely scale-like, spirally arranged and sometimes disposed in one plane or apparently opposite

sex Male

Staminate strobili terminal or axillary, forming single or fascicled usually bracteate catkin-like cones; fertile scales subpeltate, bearing 2 pollen-sacs towards the base of the blade, pollen grains winged

Morphology Reproductive morphology Cones

Female strobilus small with usually only 1 or 2 fertile scales Staminate strobili terminal or axillary, forming single or fascicled usually bracteate catkin-like cones; fertile scales subpeltate, bearing 2 pollen-sacs towards the base of the blade, pollen grains winged

sex Female

Female strobilus small with usually only 1 or 2 fertile scales

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium

Ovule solitary, erect or inverted, soon becoming enclosed by a secondary integument variously developed from part of the strobilus

Podocarpaceae, Hutchinson and Dalziel. Flora of West Tropical Africa 1:1. 1954

Morphology General Habit

Trees, or shrubby in some species; leaves persistent, alternate or opposite, or absent and represented by phylloclades, very variable from acicular to broadly lanceolate Plants dioecious or monoecious; male flowers in terminal or axillary strobili, the stamens usually many, the anthers 2-celled; female flower solitary or paired, axillary or terminal, or in strobili with megasporophylls 1-ovuled and bracteate; seed solitary, or paired; cotyledons 2

Gemma Bramley, Anna Trias-Blasi & Richard Wilford (2023). The Kew Temperate Plant Families Identification Handbook. Kew Publishing Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Recognition

Characters of similar families: Taxaceae: seed cones reduced to a single seed, partly or completely surrounded by an aril, seed terminally placed on a scaly dwarf shoot, fleshy receptacle absent. Sciadopitiaceae: true leaves reduced to small cataphylls (turning to brown scales); cladodes in pseudowhorls. Cupressacaeae: leaves scale-like or acicular; seed cones, bracts and scales fused with multiple seeds per scale.

Morphology General Habit

Trees or shrubs, evergreen, usually dioecious, rarely monoecious

Morphology Leaves

Leaves simple, entire, often highly variable in form, from large, linear, elliptic or subulate to scale-like, often spirally arranged, rarely decussate or subopposite; shoots glabrous

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Pollen

Pollen cones terminal or axillary, solitary or clustered, often catkin-like; each with numerous spirally arranged scales each bearing 2 pollen sacs; pollen grains usually 2 sacs, sometimes 3, rarely 0 Saxegothaea)

Morphology Reproductive morphology Seeds

Seeds one inverted or erect, often protruding, in some taxa with a fleshy, sometimes colourful fleshy false aril (epimatium) or dry and seated on an enlarged fleshy receptacle, functioning in bird dispersal; embryo with two cotyledons. Seed cones maturing in one year, terminal or axillary, usually solitary, varying much in complexity between genera; some subtended by a peduncle that may fuse with bracts, forming a fleshy receptacle that may be either dry or become fleshy and succulent after fertilisation, ovuliferous scales one, each bearing a single inverted ovule

Distribution

The second largest family of conifers, containing 18 genera and ca. 180 species. Mostly distributed in the Southern Hemisphere (often tropical, mainly Australasia to SE Asia, ranging to Japan), but also in Central and South America and tropical montane Africa. Genera that are most often cultivated in cooler regions include Phyllocladus, Prumnopitys, Saxegothaea, and relatively smaller portions of Podocarpus, Dacrydium and Dacrycarpus.

Note

Dioecious trees or shrubs. Leaves usually linear, elliptic or scale-like. Seed cones with ovuliferous scales bearing one ovule, cone reduced to one seed, seated on fleshy receptacle, often enveloped by a fleshy false aril.

Description Author

Harry Baldwin & Tony Kirkham

Gymnospermae, R. Melville. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1958

Morphology General Habit

Trees and shrubs with linear to lanceolate or scale-leaves, usually dioecious, the males with small cones or spikes, the females with the cones small or reduced to 1 or 2 fertile scales

Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium

Ovules erect or inverted, with the sterile base of the seed scale complex (epimatium) usually ± folded over the ovule and the base of the bracts and cone axis sometimes swelling to form a fleshy receptacle