Dacrydium xanthandrum (kerapui) description

Conservation Status

Dacrydium xanthandrum

Pilg. (1938)

Common names

On Sabah: In Dusun and Sensuron it is called kerapui, in Bokan and Mt. Alab seringoun, and it Aceh it is arun gunong (de Laubenfels 1988); in the Philippines it is hinyubayan (Farjon 2010).

Taxonomic notes

Type: Papua New Guinea: Morobe, Ogeramnang, M. S. Clemens 4504 (holotype Z000054523). Syn. Corneria xanthandra (Pilg.) A.V.Bobrov & Melikyan. The phylogenetic position is uncertain; see Dacrydiumfor discussion.

Description

Shrubs, or tees to 36 m tall and 80 cm dbh, typically with a single erect trunk and a dense, rounded crown of spreading or assurgent branches. Bark scaly and flaking; inner bark red-brown exuding red resin; outer bark dark brown. Foliage branches numerous, spreading or drooping. Juvenile leaves and adult leaves very similar; juvenile leaves spreading perpendicular to branch or curved forward from base, up to 20 × 0.8-1 mm, strongly keeled abaxially, 0.2 mm thick without keel, narrowly acute. Adult leaves short decurrent, crowded but spreading nearly perpendicular to shoot, curving forward or nearly straight, (5-)7-10(-13) × 0.5-0.8 mm, slightly flattened with a sharp abaxial keel and a narrow adaxial midrib, distally tapering to a pungent apex. Stomata on both sides, in several lines on either side of midrib on adaxial side and only few on abaxial side near base. Pollen cones lateral or terminal on foliage branches, subtended by a few short leaves ca. 2 mm long, 6-13 × 2-2.5 mm; microsporophylls extended into a curved, rostrate apex, 1.5-2 mm long, yellow with two reddish basal pollen sacs. Seed cones few, often below ends of foliage branches, terminal on a dwarf shoot with small, 2-3 mm long leaves, or when terminal following normal size leaves, with several spreading green bracts. Seeds 1(-2), exposed, covered at the base by the epimatium, ovoid, 4-5 mm long, lustrous brown (Farjon 2010).

"See comments under D. beccarii. The distinctly bifacially flattened leaves, generally concave on the axial surface, contrast strongly with the fine and distinctly more crowded leaves of D. beccarii. The difference is particularly noticeable on young plants. Fertile structures, like new shoots, are normally produced as is usual in the family after a period of rest but the examples of terminal seed-bearing structures without the usual subtending short shoot with reduced leaves apparently have appeared without the intervening rest period" (de Laubenfels 1988).

Distribution and Ecology

Brunei; Indonesia (Aceh, Central Kalimantan, Sulawesi); Malaysia (Sabah, Sarawak); Papua New Guinea (incl. New Britain); Philippines (Mindoro); Solomon Islands (Bougainville). Elevations range from (500-)1000-2700 m (de Laubenfels 1988). Within its range, mean annual temperature is 22.9°C, with an average minimum in the coldest month of 18.0°C, and a mean annual precipitation of 2911 mm (Biffin et al. 2011).

Distribution data for all species, from GBIF Occurrence Download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.yvmru2 accessed 2025.12.08. D. xanthandrum color is light green. Click on any point for more info.

This is a widespread and locally common or dominant species. It grows from primary lowland rainforest with scattered individual tall trees, to high montane ridges of low mossy forest. Soils vary but D. xanthandrum is abundant or dominant only in exposed rocky ridges or in peat over acid rocks (dacite, granite, or sandstone) or nutrient-poor sand; on such sites it grows with various species of Myrtaceae and other angiosperm shrubs and small trees (Farjon 2010).

In 2011 the IUCN assessed the conservation status of this species as "Least Concern" because, in spite of declines due to logging and deforestation, it is too widespread and locally common to be threatened with extinction. In some areas, though, logging and deforestation are proceeding, particularly in lowland forest, and populations are in decline.

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Ethnobotany

The wood is used for construction and furniture making. The timber of this species is not distinguished from other species of Dacrydium; where not protected it is subject to harvest, and would be traded as 'sempilor' a collective name for timber-grade podocarps in Indonesia and Malaysia (Farjon 2010).

Observations

No data as of 2026-01-10.

Remarks

The epithet is from the Greek words for "yellow" and "male", referring to the pollen cones.

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.

de Laubenfels, David J. 1988. Coniferales. P. 337-453 in Flora Malesiana, Series I, Vol. 10. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2025.12.11.

Pilger. 1938. Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 69:252.