Dacrydium cornwallianum

de Laub. (1988)

Common names

No common names are recorded.

Taxonomic notes

Type: Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Danau Paniai [Wissel] Lakes, C. Versteegh BW 3041 (holotype A, isotype K000288736). Syn. Dacrydium nidulum var. araucariodes de Laub. (1969); Corneria cornwalliana (de Laub.) A.V.Bobrov & Melikyan. Farjon (2010) agreed that this taxon is morphologically distinct and warrants species rank, but its phylogeny remains unknown. Note that de Laubenfels assigned the epithet cornwalliana, an incorrect conjugation.

Description

Trees to 30 m tall and 50 cm dbh, with a single erect trunk; crown elongated, dense, often with fastigiate branching. Bark thin and hard, scaly and shedding small flakes, brown, weathering gray; inner bark slightly fibrous and pinkish. Foliage in much branched tufts, spreading or assurgent in mature trees. Juvenile leaves needle-like, 8-14 × 0.4-0.5 mm, 0.2-0.3 mm thick, spreading and strongly curved forward or incurved, abaxially keeled, sharply apiculate. Adult leaves shorter and mostly uniform on twigs, spirally arranged and decurrent at base, (2-)3-5(-8) × 0.6-0.8 mm, 0.3-0.4 mm thick, abaxially keeled, spreading at 30° from the twig but strongly curved forward and with an incurved, apiculate apex. Intermediate forms of leaves occur on younger trees. Leaves amphistomatic (stomata on all sides), but extending to apex only on the adaxial side in thin lines separated by a midvein. Pollen cones terminal or sometimes lateral, 8-12 × 1.8-2 mm; microsporophylls triangular, 1-1.2 × 0.7 mm, incurved, faintly keeled abaxially, obtuse, with two basal pollen sacs. Seed cones terminal, 3 mm long, subtended by 1.5-2 mm leaves with longer (3-5 mm) cone bracts surrounding the epimatium, becoming swollen and red at base. Seed single, epimatium covering only the basal third or less of the 4-5 mm long, lustrous brown seed (de Laubenfels 1988, Farjon 2010).

Distribution and Ecology

Indonesia (W & C New Guinea), Papua New Guinea. "Dominant to nearly pure stands in swamp forests and perhaps also mossy heath forests between 1450 and 2300 m altitude"; (de Laubenfels 1988). These are low-productivity ecosystems due to flooding, drought stress and low nutrient availability (Enright and Jaffré 2011). Podocarp success on such wetland soils may be due to their arbuscular mycorrhizae, which better tolerate saturated soils with low oxygen content when compared to the ectomycorrhizae that predominate in drier forest ecosystems (Khan 2004).

Distribution data for all species, from GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.yvmru2, accessed 2025.12.08. D. cornwallianum color is blue. Click on any point for more info.

In 2011 IUCN assessed this species as of "Least Concern" for conservation because "there is no sign of a decline in the past or present. ... There is no commercial exploitation or degradation of the habitat at present."

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Observations

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Remarks

De Laubenfels (1988) does not explain the origin of the epithet. There are no places called Cornwall in New Guinea, nor botanists named Cornwall who have done work there.

Citations

de Laubenfels, David J. 1969. A revision of the Malesian and Pacific rainforest conifers, I. Podocarpaceae, in part. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 50:299-300. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.12.14.

de Laubenfels, David J. 1988. Coniferales. P. 337-453 in Flora Malesiana, Series I, Vol. 10. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.12.11.

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.

Khan, A. G. 2004. Mycotrophy and its significance in wetland ecology and wetland management. Pp. 95-114 in Wetlands Ecosystems in Asia. Elsevier.

See also

The GBIF occurrence data provide more information on where this rare taxon has been found.