Common Names
True yellowwood, Opregte Geelhout (3).Taxonomic notes
Syn: Taxus latifolius Thunb. 1800; P. thunbergii Hooker 1842; Nageia latifolia (Thunb.) Kuntze 1891; P. milanjianus Rendle 1894; P. ulugurensis Pilger 1934 (2); P. latifolius var. latior (3)."No justification was found for upholding var. latior Pug. as there are intermediates connecting it with the typical form" (3).
Description
"Tree up to 33 m high with straight clean bole up to 3 m in diameter or stunted tree or shrub no more than 2 m high. Bark dark grey to khaki-coloured, smooth in young trees, later longitudinally fissured and exfoliating in long strips. Branchlets slightly angular, marked with grooves from decurrent leaf bases. Terminal buds 2-3.5 mm in diameter; outer bud scales narrowly triangular, acuminate, upper half sometimes recurved, 4-6 mm long and about 1.5 mm wide. Leaves spirally arranged to subopposite, often crowded in upper parts of shoots, spreading, dark green to glaucous and shiny above; adult leaves straight to very slightly falcate, linear-elliptic, more or less parallel-sided in middle portion, rather abruptly contracted in upper 1/4 or 1/5, apiculate to subobtuse, (2-) 3.5-6 (-10) cm long and (0.5-) 0.6-0.8 (-l.3) cm wide; juvenile leaves up to 17 cm long and up to 17 times longer than broad; midrib raised on lower surface, on upper surface slightly raised in lower 2/3; margins slightly reflexed; stomata confined to lower surface (very rarely a few present on upper surface), arranged in 20-35 ± distinct longitudinal rows on either side of midrib. Male cones solitary, rarely in groups of 2, sessile or subsessile, (0.8-) 1-2 (-3) cm long, elongating to 3 cm or more after shedding pollen, (2.5-) 3-4.5 (-6) mm in diameter, pinkish; outer sterile scales at base narrowly to very narrowly triangular, often distinctly keeled, subentire to denticulate, 3-4 mm long and about 1.5-2 mm wide; terminal lobe of fertile scale broadly triangular to widely ovate, about 0.6 mm long and 0.6-0.7 mm wide, lacerate; pollen sacs about 1.3 mm long and 0.6-0.7 mm in diameter. Female cones solitary, on naked stalks (1.5-) 5-10 (-19) mm long and about 1 mm in diameter; receptacle fleshy, glaucous green, turning pink to reddish-purple when ripe, sweet-tasting and semi-transparent, 8-14 mm long and 8-14 mm wide, with 1, less commonly 2 fertile scales, 1 or sometimes 2 seeds maturing on each receptacle. Seed obovoid to subglobose, often slightly apiculate, glaucous to slate-coloured, sometimes turning dark violet, 7-11 mm long; shell 0.5-1.2 mm thick, consisting of 3 layers: the outermost thin and leathery, the middle one varies in thickness, is slightly woody, often contains cavities filled with resin, the inner thin and pergamentaceous" (3)Range
Central and southern Africa, the variety on Table Mountain in South Africa (1). "Found in the Cape Peninsula, the high forests in the southern districts of the Cape Province and in coastal and midland climax forests from the Eastern Cape to the northern Transvaal. Occurs as a tall straight tree in high temperate forests, and as a low spreading tree or shrub on exposed rocky slopes and in open coastal bush" (3).Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Observations
Remarks
The commonest podocarp in Southern Africa, this is one of the most abundant trees in the Knysna forests. Both seeds and receptacles are eaten by birds and other animals (3).Citations
(1) Silba 1986.(2) P.254 of de Laubenfels 1985.
(3) Leistner, O.A. 1966. Podocarpaceae. Pp. 34-41 in L.E. Codd, B. De Winter and H.B. Rycrodt (eds.), Flora of Southern Africa, Volume I. Republic of South Africa Department on Agricultural Technical Services (as P. falcatus).
back | Podocarpus | Podocarpaceae | home
This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/po/po/latifolius.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 14-Nov-1999