Podocarpus elatus description

Mature tree in Kitchener Park, Feilding, New Zealand [Trevor Hinchliffe, ].

Mature tree, Glocester River [Trevor Hinchliffe, ].

Upper trunks of two large trees, Glocester River [Trevor Hinchliffe, ].

Foliage of tree in Wollongong [Trevor Hinchliffe, ].

Female strobili of tree in Wollongong [Trevor Hinchliffe, ].

Bark of tree in Paramatta, NSW [Trevor Hinchliffe, ].

Podocarpus elatus R. Br. ex Endlicher

Common Names

Brown pine, plum pine (Harden 1990).

Taxonomic notes

See (Gray 1958, Thompson 1961, de Laubenfels 1985). Base name for Nageia elata (Endl.) F. Muell.

Description

"Medium to large tree with brown to dark brown bark that is often fissured and scaly on old trees. Leaves oblong to linear, 6-18 mm wide, 5-14 cm long, midvein prominent, other veins obscure. Male cones narrow-cylindrical, catkin-like, to 3 cm long, in ± sessile, axillary clusters. Female cones axillary, stalked, solitary; scales few, fleshy, uniting with the stalk to form a fleshy receptacle. Fruiting receptacle blue-black, glaucous, fleshy, to 20 mm diam., bearing an almost globose seed c 10 mm diam.; ripe Mar.-July" (Harden 1990).

Range

Australia: New South Wales and Queensland, "in and around rainforest north from the Beecroft Peninsula" (Harden 1990).

Big Tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Exploited for timber and as an ornamental (Harden 1990). "The seed is borne on a purple-black fleshy stalk, which was eaten [by Aboriginals]. It is sweet but mucilaginous" (Fagg 1992).