Scientific name: Podocarpus brassii Pilger 1937

Synonyms: -

Common names: Chuga podocarp, Chuga, Bacela (Chimbu), Maja (Mondo)

Description

Spreading shrub or tree to 30 m tall, with trunk, when present, to 0.75 m in diameter. Crown rounded to flat, with many short branches bearing clustered branchlets densely clothed with foliage. Twigs coarse, rigid, green, deeply and prominently grooved between the attached leaf bases. Resting buds spherical, 4-5 mm in diameter, the erect bud scales longer, up to 5(-8) mm long with their projecting tip. Leaves densely and evenly standing out or forward along and around the twigs, thick, leathery and very stiff, shiny dark green above, paler and duller beneath, 1-2(-2.5) cm long (to 4 cm in juveniles), 3-7.5 mm wide. Blades straight, the margins turned down, widest below the middle, tapering fairly quickly to the triangular tip, which may have a short point, and abruptly to the roundly wedge-shaped base on a very short petiole to 2 mm long. Midrib narrowly and shallowly raised above, more broadly raised beneath, with (one or) three resin canals beneath the midvein, wings of support tissue extending out to the sides, and a scattering of hypodermis cells beneath the upper epidermis. Pollen cones 2.5-3 cm long and 3.5-7 mm in diameter, one directly in the axils of the foliage leaves. Pollen scales with an upturned triangular tip 1-4 mm long. Seed cones on a thick short, leafless stalk 1-9 mm long, with a pair of needlelike basal bracteoles 2-3 mm long, the reproductive part with two (or three) unequal bracts, these and the axis becoming swollen, juicy, and dark purple with bluish wax, 5-9 mm long by 3-7 mm thick. Fertile seed scales one (or two), the combined seed coat and epimatium leathery over a hard inner shell, purplish brown, 7-10(-13) mm long by (5-)6-9 mm thick, without a crest or beak. The species name honors Leonard Brass (1900-1971), the Australian botanist and explorer who collected the type specimen and many other plants during the Archbold expeditions in New Guinea.

Along the mountainous spine of New Guinea from central Irian Jaya (Indonesia) through Papua New Guinea to Mount Sucking in the east. Occupying and sometimes dominating many open, high-elevation habitats, from the margins of subalpine forests to alpine grasslands, scrublands, and rock fields, occasionally in mossy forests; (2,000-)2,600-3,750(-4,000) m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

Podocarpus brassii is widespread and locally abundant at higher altitudes in the central mountains of the island of New Guinea. No threats or decline have been identified and it is therefore assessed as Least Concern.

Podocarpus brassii occurs in high montane evergreen forest, in subalpine mossy forest, in subalpine to alpine scrubland and on the margins of or occasionally in alpine grassland. It is a high altitude species; the two varieties, as noted by de Laubenfels in Flora Malesiana ser. 1, 10 (3): 413-414 (1988), although for the most part sympatric, occur at more or less separated altitudes. Var. humilis, a decumbent shrub or small, stunted tree, is found from 2,510 m to 3,600 m a.s.l.; the more abundant tree form, var. brassii, from occasionally around 2,700 m, but more commonly between 3,100 m and 4,000 m a.s.l. In wet areas near pools var. humilis becomes decumbent and forms dense 'mats' of ca. 3 m2 and only 15-30 cm tall. The (fuzzy) forest line is situated at 3,600-3,700 m in many places, so the highest growing trees of var. brassii are isolated individuals emergent above shrubbery or in acid, boggy subalpine to alpine grassland. The species is rather rare in tall forest, where it may attain 25-30 m with a straight bole. Associated taxa in the subalpine shrubbery or mossy forest are e.g. Rhododendron and Rapanea; in the upper montane forest we can also find the conifers Araucaria cunninghamii, Dacrycarpus compactus and Podocarpus pilgeri. Tree ferns are often abundant in the alpine grassland, which often forms mozaic vegetation patterns with shrubbery and patches of mossy forest. The occurrence of Podocarpus brassii in grassland away from woody vegetation may be caused by past fires, which are often lit by people.

Threats come from open cast mining at high altitude (e.g. copper mining in and near Lorentz National Park), but these are local and the species is widespread.

This species is not recorded as being used commercially; its rarity as a tall tree makes exploitation for timber unlikely. Outside a few plants grown in botanic gardens, where it is usually a shrub, but only named to species, neither variety is in cultivation.

This species is present in several protected areas, e.g. Lorentz National Park, a World Heritage Site.

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