Athrotaxis

D. Don 1841

Common names

Tasmanian cedar.

Taxonomic notes

A genus of two species and one hybrid, or (in this treatment) three species:

• A. cupressoides
• A. laxifolia
• A. selaginoides

Description

Monoecious evergreen trees with bark peeling off in thin, long strips. Branchlets spreading, thick, ultimate branchlets deciduous. Buds inconspicuous. Leaves homomorphic, scale-like and appressed or lanceolate and loosely disposed, uniform in shape and size, thick, with faint or prominent stomata. Male cones solitary, catkin-like, with imbricate spirally arranged aments, anthers 2-celled. Female cones woody, globose, maturing in one year, with many triangular scales; scales with a small recurved apical umbo or scales thing, papery and without umbos. Seeds 3-6 per scale, oblong, thin, with 2 narrow even wings. Cotyledons 2 (Silba 1986).

Distribution and Ecology

The temperate rain forests of Tasmania.

Big tree

See A. selaginoides.

Oldest

Dendrochronology

Ethnobotany

Observations

Remarks

"Athrotaxis comes from two Greek words athros= crowded, and taxis= arrangement, referring to the overlapping arrangement of the leaves" (ANBG [no date]).

Citations

See also

Farjon 2005 (as two species).

Gymnosperms of New Zealand.