Dacrydium lycopodioides

Brongn. & Gris (1869)

Common names

Mou (Silba 1986).

Taxonomic notes

Type: New Caledonia, Grande Terre, Province Sud, Mt. Mou, 1868.12.10, J. A. I. Pancher s.n. (holotype P00188472). Syn. Gaussenia lycopodioides (Brongn. & Gris) A.V.Bobrov & Melikyan. The phylogenetic position is uncertain; see Dacrydium for discussion.

Description

Trees to 25 m tall and 50 cm dbh, erect, in forest forming a clear bole; crown spreading, dense and rounded in old trees. Bark covered in many small lenticels, scaly with small flakes, brown, weathering gray; inner bark more or less fibrous and light brown. Foliage in much-branched tufts, spreading to erect in mature trees. Juvenile leaves needle-like, 7-10 mm long, 0.2-0.3 mm wide and thick, spreading at 45° from the shoot, slightly curved forward to nearly straight, triangular in cross section, pungent. Adult leaves shorter and gradually changing from juvenile leaves, spirally arranged and spreading at 30-40°, curved forward above base, linear-lanceolate, (2-)3-5(-6) mm long, 0.6-0.8 mm wide just above base and 0.3-0.4 mm thick, keeled sharply on abaxial side, gradually tapering to a pungent apex. Stomata on all sides, but extending to distal part of leaf only on adaxial side, in a few intermittent rows separated by the keel and by a midrib on the adaxial side. Pollen cones terminal or lateral below a terminal cone, 4-7 × 1.2 mm when mature; microsporophylls narrowly triangular, keeled abaxially, tapering to an acute apex, with two basal pollen sacs. Seed cones terminal, often on short shoots, 2-3 mm long, subtended by short (1-2 mm) leaves and by longer (2-3 mm) flattened cone bracts surrounding the basal epimatium, which becomes swollen and red at base. Seeds single, covered for only the basal third or less by the epimatium, 3.5-4 mm long, ovoid but slightly flattened, lustrous brown (de Laubenfels 1972, Farjon 2010). D. lycopodioides occurs in the forest canopy or is an emergent. It is largely confined to exposed summits (Enright and T. Jaffré 2011).

Distribution and Ecology

New Caledonia: at elevations of 900-1400 m in dense evergreen forests on the southern part of Grande Terre (de Laubenfels 1972). Within its range, mean annual temperature is 19.0°C, with an average minimum in the coldest month of 12.4°C, and a mean annual precipitation of 1899 mm (Biffin et al. 2011).

This map shows herbarium records of Dacrydium species native to New Caledonia. Blue is D. araucarioides, green is D. balansae, orange is D. guillauminii, and red is D lycopodioides. Click on an icon for further information. Distribution data from GBIF (2020.03.30), edited to remove duplicates.

Collections are recorded from the following locales (de Laubenfels 1972):

• Mt. Mou (13 records)
• Ridge above river Ouinné, 800-1000 m (3 records)
• Mt. Humboldt, 1400 m

In 2010 the IUCN assessed the conservation status of this species as "Near Threatened" because, although this species has a very limited distribution and is relatively rare, no overall population decline has been observed. Potential future threats, however, include increasing fire frequencies, general habitat degradation and fragmentation, and climate change.

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Observations

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Remarks

The epithet indicates a similarity to Lycopodium and indeed the branches do resemble large versions of some lycopodium taxa, e.g. L. clavatum. Of course, the same can be said of many Dacrydium species.

"No other species is closely affiliated with D. lycopodioides but in general resembles in appearance other New Caledonian conifers. Dacrydium spathoides from New Guinea is somewhat related to this species by also having flattened leaves" (de Laubenfels 1972).

Citations

Biffin, Ed, Timothy J. Brodribb, Robert S. Hill, Philip Thomas and Andrew J. Lowe. 2011. Leaf evolution in Southern Hemisphere conifers tracks the angiosperm ecological radiation. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2011.0559. Data from Table S5.

Brongniart, A. T. and Grisebach, A. H. R. 1869. Bull. Soc. Bot. France 16: 329.

de Laubenfels, David J. 1972. No. 4, Gymnospermes, in A. Aubréville and Jean-F. Leroy, eds., Flore de la Nouvelle-Calédonie et Dépendances. Paris: Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.12.12.

Enright, N. J., and T. Jaffré. 2011. Ecology and distribution of the Malesian podocarps. Pp. 57-77 in B. L. Turner and L. A. Cernusak (eds.), Ecology of the Podocarpaceae in Tropical Forests. Smithsonian Contributions to Botany no. 95. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

Thanks to Ferenc Kiss for translating de Laubenfels from the French (2003.12).

See also

Association Endemia, a site devoted to New Caledonian species. Has excellent photos, a range map, and other information. In French.

Brongniart, A. T. and Grisebach, A. H. R. 1871. Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. Paris, ser. 5, 13:345.

Compton, R. H. 1922. Journal of the Linnaean Society 45: 427.

de Laubenfels, D. J. 1969. A revision of the Malesian and Pacific rainforest conifers, I. Podocarpaceae, in part. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 50:292-295. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2021.12.24.

Pilger, R. K. F. 1903. In Engler, Pflanzenreich 4(5): 52.

Sarlin. 1954. Bois et Forêts Nouvelle Calédonie, p. 91 and pl. 18.

Stockey, R. A. and H. Ko. 1990. Cuticle micromorphology of Dacrydium (Podocarpaceae) from New Caledonia. Botanical Gazette 151(1): 138-149.

White, 1926. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 7: 80.