Microstrobos

J. Garden et L.A.S. Johnson 1951

Common names

Taxonomic notes

Syn: Pherosphaera Hooker 1857, non Archer. Allied to Microcachrys and Dacrydium (Dallimore et al. 1967). Two species, M. niphophilus the type.

Description

Evergreen dioecious shrubs. Branches short and stiff or long and slender. Leaves of adult and juvenile plants similar. Adult leaves spirally arranged but often seemingly in 4 or 5 rows, keeled, <4 mm long. Scale-like leaves imbricate and obtuse, awl-like leaves spreading and acute. Cones (pollen and seed) solitary, terminal on normal vegetative shoots. Seed cones not fleshy at maturity, ovoid to globose, epimatium lacking, ovules erect, about 2.5 mm long with 3-8 fertile scales, scales thin, thickened at the base, obovate, brown when mature. Pollen cones 2-3 mm long, composed of 8 - 15 stamens. Seeds several in each cone, each seed at the base of a glume-like scale equalling or slightly exceeding the length of the seed. Individual seeds light brown or greyish, up to about 1 mm diameter, with a hard, glossy brown integument. 2n=26 (Dallimore et al. 1967, Hill 1998).

M. niphophilus "is easily distinguished from M. fitzgeraldi by its denser habit and smaller, thicker and more closely arranged leaves" (Dallimore et al. 1967).

The following key is provided by Hill (1998):

Adult leaves to 1.5 mm long, fully appressed to the stem, less than twice as long as wide, native to Tasmania.	M. niphophilus
Adult leaves 2.5-3.5 mm long, free and spreading, basally decurrent, more than twice as long as wide, native to New South Wales.	M. fitzgeraldi

Range

Australia: New South Wales and Tasmania (each with one endemic species) (Harden 1990). Found at alpine elevations usually on mesic sites such as the margins of lakes, streams, and waterfalls, where they are rare (Dallimore et al. 1967).

Big tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

Genus name is from the Greek mikros, small, and strobos, a cone.

Citations

Garden, J. and L. A. S. Johnson. 1951. Microstrobos, a new name for a Podocarpaceous genus. Contr. New South Wales Natl. Herb. 1:315-317.

See also

Gymnosperms of New Zealand.