Podocarpus elongatus

Tilcayo Cats original · Plants · Sources and editorial assessment · Originals retention rule

Podocarpus elongatus, the Breede River yellowwood, is an evergreen conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is associated with river margins in South Africa's Western Cape. Its narrow, grey-green leaves and often bushy, many-stemmed form distinguish it from the familiar image of a tall, straight forest yellowwood.

Appearance

SANBI's PlantZAfrica account describes a shrub or small tree usually reaching about six metres, although trees in sheltered, well-watered places can reach twenty metres. Its bark is grey-brown and flakes away with age. The leathery leaves are crowded near branch tips, measuring roughly thirty to sixty millimetres long and three to five millimetres wide.

Its female cones are highly reduced. A 1995 botanical treatment places it among yellowwoods whose fertile cone scales and axis form a fleshy receptacle beneath the seeds. Wind carries the pollen, while birds and small mammals visit the fleshy seed-bearing structures.

Habitat and range

South African accounts describe it along streams and on moist slopes in the winter-rainfall region, often on sandy substrates. PlantZAfrica also describes its ability to produce new shoots from the trunk after damage, an advantage where flooding disturbs riverbank trees.

The geographical treatments differ. SANBI's national Red List account treats the species as endemic to the Western Cape, from the Bokkeveld Mountains to the Swellendam area. Kew's current database instead lists native occurrences in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe as well as the Cape Provinces. Those records require further taxonomic and specimen checking before a single, unqualified range can be given.

Conservation and uses

SANBI assessed the species as Least Concern in South Africa on 18 June 2009, describing it as widespread and not declining. This is a dated national assessment, rather than evidence of a new global population survey.

The PlantZAfrica account records uses of the wood by woodturners, chair-makers and wagon-builders. Its branching habit and knots limit the supply of long, straight pieces.

Botanical name

Kew accepts Podocarpus elongatus, based on Aiton's earlier name Taxus elongata. The accepted combination dates to 1807. A 1995 discussion of African yellowwoods noted that P. elongatus had remained in Podocarpus when some other species were transferred to Afrocarpus.