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"Range of four species of the genus Falcatifolium" (1).
Common Names
Taxonomic notes
See Dacrydium.KEY TO THE SPECIES
"1. Adult leaves normally bent at least slightly forward at the apex, tapering from at least the centre of the leaf; pollen cones at least 17 mm long.
"2. Adult leaves linear-lanceolate, sun leaves at least 20 mm long, not glaucous; pollen cone 2.5-3.5 mm diam. 1. F. falciforme
"2. Adult leaves mostly lanceolate, sun leaves 13-20 mm long, glaucous; pollen cone 1.5-3 mm diam. 2. F. gruezoi
"1. Adult leaves often not bent forward at the apex, the sides parallel for most of their length; pollen cones no more than 13 mm long.
"3. Adult leaves weakly keeled if at all, 2-3.5 mm wide, 12-20 mm long 3. F. papuanum
"3. Adult leaves distinctly keeled on their broader surfaces, 1-2.5 mm wide, 18-35 mm long. 4. F. angustum"
Source: (1).
Description
"Dioecious shrubs to large trees to 36 m tall with thin more or less smooth brownish bark with scattered lenticels, reddish and somewhat fibrous within, breaking off in occasional flakes on larger specimens. Loosely and irregularly branched. Leaves spirally placed, single veined, and alternating with elongated appressed scales which are loosely clustered at the shoot apices to form foliar buds between episodes of growth. Seedling leaves narrowly lenticular, apiculate, bifacially flattened, giving way abruptly to distinct juvenile leaves in about the second year of growth. Juvenile and adult leaves distichous, bilaterally flattened and falcately curved away from the branch with the apex in most cases oppositely curved in the direction of shoot growth. Reproductive structures on short scaly shoots which are either axillary or terminal and may bear a few reduced leaves. Pollen cones cylindrical, solitary or clustered; microsporophyll a small acuminate spur above the two pollen sacs. Seed-bearing structures solitary, consisting of up to about a dozen large acuminate scales which become greatly swollen, red, and fleshy when mature; normally one subapical scale fertile with a cup-shaped epimatium which has a distinct hump opposite the base of the included seed positioned well beyond the subtending fleshy scale so that the solitary seed and its basal humped epimatium are fully exposed; the inverted ovule gradually turning upward as it matures into a nearly erect seed; the mature seed with two lateral weak ridges along its wider sides which come together in an apical ridge, otherwise the seed is more or less egg-shaped."Obviously related to Dacrydium but differing in the dimorphic foliage with specialized fertile shoots and the exposed hump of the epimatium opposite the base of the seed. In Dacrydium the base of the seed lies close to its attachment and is always well covered by the subtending bract." (1).
Range
New Caledonia; New Guinea; Moluccas (Obi I.); N. & Central Celebes; Philippines (Mindoro); Borneo; Riouw-Lingga Archipelago (Lingga); Malaya (1).Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Observations
Remarks
Citations
(1) de Laubenfels 1988.See also de Laubenfels 1969.
[Falcatifolium] [Podocarpaceae] [home]
This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/po/fa/index.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 12-Apr-1999