Podocarpus elatus

R. Br. ex Endlicher

Common names

Brown pine, plum pine (Harden 1990), Australian plum.

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). Hardy to Zone 10.

Big tree

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Exploited for timber and sometimes planted as an ornamental, primarily in Australia (Harden 1990). The wood has a straight grain with inconspicuous growth rings, and is used for fine work including furniture, kitchen utensils, musical instruments (piano keys and violin bellies) and wood turning (ANBG 2009).

"The seed is borne on a purple-black fleshy stalk, which was eaten [by Aboriginals]. It is sweet but mucilaginous" (Fagg 1992).

Observations

Remarks

Galbraith et al. (1973) isolated a steroid called Podecdysone C from the bark of P. elatus, and also found it in several other species of Podocarpus . This compound has a structure extremely similar to that of hormones that induce moulting in insects, which prompts the obvious question, what does that achieve for P. elatus? Is it an insecticide? However, no one seems to have followed up on this question.

Citations

Australian National Botanic Gardens [ANBG]. 2009. Podocarpus elatus. www.anbg.gov.au/anbg/conifers/podocarpus-elatus.html, accessed 2009.12.09.

Galbraith, M. N. Galbraith, D. H. S. Horn, E. J. Middleton, J. N. Kaplanis, and M. J. Thompson. 1973. Structure of podecdysone C, a steroid with moulting hormone activity from the bark of Podocarpus elatus R. Br. Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 29(7):782.

See also