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Prumnopitys ferruginea

Prumnopitys ferruginea

Scientific name: Prumnopitys ferruginea (G.Bennett ex D.Don) de Laubenfels  1978

Synonyms: Nageia ferruginea (G.Benn. ex D.Don) F.Muell., Podocarpus ferrugineus G.Benn. ex D.Don, Stachycarpus ferrugineus (G.Benn. ex D.Don) Tiegh., Stachypitys ferruginea (G.Benn. ex D.Don) A.V.Bobrov & Melikyan    

Common names:Brown pine, Miro (Maori)

 

Description

Tree to 25(-30) m tall, with a smooth or slightly buttressed cylindrical trunk to 1 m in diameter, often unbranched for a third or more of its height. Bark thin, densely warty, dark brown at first, weathering grayish to almost black, shedding profusely in thick flakes and sometimes becoming deeply furrowed with age. Crown dense, conical at first, becoming deeply to shallowly cylindrical or even dome-shaped with age, with numerous short, upwardly angled branches bearing alternating or slightly offset horizontal branchlets densely clothed with foliage. Leaves lasting 2-3 years or more, extending out to the sides of the twigs in two quite even rows, angled forward, often arched along their length, straight to curved outward, (1.5-)2-2.5 cm long (to 3 cm in juveniles), 2-3 mm wide. Pollen cones 0.5-1.5(-2) cm long, 2-3(-4) mm thick, attached singly at the tips of or in axils along otherwise unmodified shoots with ordinary foliage leaves. Seed cone axis 0.5-1 cm long, scaly and with one (or two) fertile bracts at the tip, from which one (or two) seeds mature, the scales progressively elongating upward near the fertile bract(s), to 3 mm long. The combined seed coat and epimatium bright red with a thin waxy film at maturity, (1-)1.5-2(-2.5) cm long, 6-12(-15) mm thick with a conical beak 1-2 mm long.

Common throughout the three main islands of New Zealand but progressively more abundant southward. Forming pure stands or mixed with other conifers and evergreen hardwoods in the canopy of dense, shady, moist lowland forests; 0-700(-1,000) m.

 

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

(Prumnopitys ferruginea is considered Least Concern as it is widespread and regenerating from a historic low level of the population several decades ago)

 

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

 

Copyright © Aljos Farjon, James E. Eckenwalder, IUCN, Conifers Garden. All rights reserved.


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