Scientific name: Phyllocladus trichomanoides D.Don 1832

Synonyms: Phyllocladus cunninghamii Carrière, Podocarpus trichomanoides (D.Don) Kuntze

Common names: Celery pine, Mountain toatoa, Tanekaha (Maori)

Description

Tree to 20(-25) m tall, with a straight cylindrical trunk to 0.8(-1) m in diameter and free of branches for half its height. Bark thin, smooth or with a roughened surface, greenish brown to dark gray or black, thickening, flaking, and weathering lighter with age and sometimes becoming furrowed. Crown conical at first, becoming narrowly and deeply cylindrical with age, with whorls of slender, horizontal to gently upwardly angled branches. Phylloclades attached singly or, more frequently, in rings of (two to) four to eight at the tips of growth increments or of other phylloclades, compound, (2.5-)3-8(-16) cm long overall, with(6-)9-12(-15) alternately pinnate segments. Each segment (1-)1.5-2.5(-4) cm long, roundly diamond- to egg-shaped, minutely angularly toothed to deeply lobed (especially sharply cut and toothed in juveniles), bluish green with a variable film of wax above and beneath. Juvenile leaves 8-10(-20) mm long. Scale leaves of adult long shoots and buds 2-6(-10) mm long. Pollen cones single or in clusters of (2-)5-10(-15) at the tip of a growth increment or of a phylloclade. Each cone (5-)7-11 mm long by 3.5-4.5 mm thick, reddish purple to red just before shedding pollen, on a short stalk 2-7(-10) mm long. Seed cones in open groups of (three to) five to eight, each attached singly or two or three together at the sides of (or totally replacing) the reduced segments of a specialized reproductive phylloclade. Fertile phylloclades 3-5 cm long, arranged in a whorl replacing a whorl of ordinary photosynthetic phylloclades at the tip of a growth increment. Each seed cone roughly spherical,2-5 mm in diameter, with two to five (to eight) bracts of which one to five are fertile and mature one to three seeds. Seed hard, shiny bluish black, 2-3 mm long, enclosed for about half their length by the thin, white aril.

Discontinuous in New Zealand throughout northern and central North Island and the northern edge of South Island. Lowland mixed forests; 0-800 m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

(The extent of occurrence and area of occupancy of this species both exceed the thresholds for a threatened category; past decline has now ceased and it is increasing in many areas. As a result it is assessed as Least Concern)

References

Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.

Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.

IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland