Dacrydium araucarioides description

Conservation Status

Dacrydium araucarioides

Brongn. & Gris (1866)

Common names

No common names are recorded.

Taxonomic notes

Type: New Caledonia, Grande Terre, Province Sud, "montagnes au-dessus de Canala", E. Vieillard 1277 (lectotype P). Syn: see POWO. The phylogenetic position is uncertain; see Dacrydium for discussion.

Dacrydium × suprinii Nimsch 2007 is the natural hybrid between this species and D. guillauminii. D. guillauminii, a species with very restricted distribution, is introgressed by D. araucarioides (Keppel et al. 2011).

Description

Small trees, 3-6 m tall, up to 20 cm dbh, with a spreading crown usually assuming a candelabra form. Bark on mature trees thick, scaly, rough, dark brown and slightly fibrous inside, more or less smooth with occasional lenticels on young trees, becoming gray with age. Twigs short, thick, cylindrical. Juvenile leaves acicular, dense, curved, 12 mm long. Transitional leaves short and thick, 5-7 mm long (very similar to the adult leaves of Dacrydium balansae, but a little bit longer). Adult leaves develop gradually from the transitional leaves, scale-like, linear-oblong, about 3-5 mm long by 1-1.4 mm wide, densely overlapping in many rows, rigid, strongly curved, keeled beneath, blunt at the apex. Pollen cones terminal, often on short, lateral shoots, or laterally just below a terminal pollen cone, cylindrical, 9-18 mm long and 2.5-3 mm in diameter; microsporophylls long, triangular, sharp with incurved apex. Seed cone terminal on short branches whose leaves are about 3 mm long and strongly curved; bracts noticeably longer and straight on top of the cone, the apex slightly hooked, the entire cone becoming fleshy and red at maturity. Seeds 1-3, surrounded by the bracts, becoming erect and a little bit longer than the bracts which enclose them, oval but tapering off to a blunt apex, 4.5 mm long (Dallimore et al. 1967, de Laubenfels 1972, Enright and Jaffré 2011). See García Esteban et al. (2004) for a detailed characterization of the wood anatomy.

Distribution and Ecology

New Caledonia. It is locally a dominant species on ultramafic-derived soils on the southern half of Grande Terre (de Laubenfels 1972), where it is particularly abundant on laterite soils and 'ironstone' (cuirasse de fer) in the Plaine des Lacs and the surrounding hills (Farjon 2010). Within its range, mean annual temperature is 21.2°C, with an average minimum in the coldest month of 14.2°C, and a mean annual precipitation of 1913 mm (Biffin et al. 2011).

This map shows herbarium records of Dacrydium species native to New Caledonia. Blue is D. araucarioides, green is D. balansae, orange is D. guillauminii, and red is D lycopodioides. Click on an icon for further information. Distribution data from GBIF (2020.03.30), edited to remove duplicates.

Habitat is low, open woodland on mountain ridges and tall "maquis minier" on slopes and plains, mostly at elevations of 100–400 m, but there is a population at 900 m on Montagne des Sources. Associated vegetation is mostly angiosperms, e.g. Gymnostoma chamaecyparis and G. deplancheanum (Casuarinaceae), but it may also grow with various conifers, e.g. Araucaria muelleri, Agathis ovata, Retrophyllum minus, and Neocallitropsis pancheri. Maquis minier is perpetuated by fires and regeneration is generally slow due to the ultramafic soils, which are low in nutrients and high in toxic metals such as nickel and chromium. D. araucarioides may recruit continuously in dry, open forests, but recruitment declines in more mesic sites, and high-severity disturbance is needed for recruitment to resume (Farjon 2010, McCoy et al. 2002, Enright and Jaffré 2011).

The IUCN regards this species as of "Least Concern" for conservation because it is known from many locales and the population does not seem to be in decline, despite threats related to mining and wildfire.

Zone 10 (cold hardiness limit between -1°C and +4.4°C) (Bannister and Neuner 2001).

Remarkable Specimens

McCoy (1998) and McCoy et al. (1999) found that growth rings were clear and probably annual, with counts suggesting ages of up to 125 years for individuals approaching 20 cm dbh. Enright and Jaffré (2011) suggest it is capable of living up to 200 years.

Ethnobotany

Due to its small size, exploitation for timber is unlikely. It is not cultivated (Farjon 2010).

Observations

No data as of 2026-01-23.

Remarks

The epithet means "like Araucaria" and refers to the mature foliage.

Citations

Biffin, Ed, Timothy J. Brodribb, Robert S. Hill, Philip Thomas and Andrew J. Lowe. 2011. Leaf evolution in Southern Hemisphere conifers tracks the angiosperm ecological radiation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0559. Data from Table S5.

Brongniart, A. and A. Gris. 1866. Sur Quelques Coniferes de la Nouvelle-Caledonie. Bulletin de la Société botanique de France 13:426 (1866). Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.19.

de Laubenfels, David J. 1972. No. 4, Gymnospermes, in A. Aubréville and Jean-F. Leroy, eds., Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendances. Paris: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.12.12.

Enright, N. J., and T. Jaffré. 2011. Ecology and distribution of the Malesian podocarps. Pp. 57-77 in B. L. Turner and L. A. Cernusak (eds.), Ecology of the Podocarpaceae in Tropical Forests. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany no. 95. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Keppel, G., P. Prentis, E. Biffin, et al. 2011. Diversification history and hybridisation of Dacrydium (Podocarpaceae) in remote Oceania. Australian Journal of Botany 59:262-273. doi.org/10.1071/BT10181

Knopf, P., H.Nimsch, and T. Stützel. 2007. Dacrydium × suprinii, sp. nova – a natural hybrid of Dacrydium araucarioides × D. guillauminii. Feddes Repertorium 118(1-2):51-59. Abstract: During excursions in New Caledonia in 1994, a hitherto undescribed natural hybrid between Dacrydium araucarioides Brongn. et Gris. and Dacrydium guillauminii J. Buchholz was found, for which the name Dacrydium × suprinii Nimsch sp. nova in honor of Bernard Suprin, Noumea, New Caledonia, is proposed. Morphological and site characteristics are presented.

McCoy, S. 1998. The Dynamics of Gymnostoma Maquis on Ultramafic Soils in New Caledonia. Ph.D. thesis, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University, Canberra.

McCoy, S., T. Jaffré, F. Rigault, and J. E. Ash. 1999. Fire and succession in the ultramafic maquis of New Caledonia. Journal of Biogeography 26:579–594. doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2699.1999.00309.x.

Thanks to Ferenc Kiss for translating de Laubenfels from the French (2003.12).