Prumnopitys Elegans
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''Prumnopitys andina'', the lleuque or Chilean plum yew,British Forestry Research
on ''P. andina''
is an
evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...
coniferous Conifers are a group of cone-bearing seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single extant class, Pinopsida. All extant ...
tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...
native to south-central
Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...
and a few areas in adjacent parts of westernmost
Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
from 36 to 40° South latitude. It lives on moderately wet soils, preferably on Andean slopes from . It grows up to high, with a trunk up to in diameter. The
leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...
are linear to sickle-shaped, 15–30 mm long and 2 mm broad. The
seed cones A conifer cone (in formal botanical usage: strobilus, plural strobili) is a seed-bearing organ on gymnosperm plants. It is usually woody, ovoid to globular, including scales and bracts arranged around a central axis, especially in conifers an ...
are highly modified, reducing to a central stem 2–4 cm long bearing 1-4 scales, each scale maturing berry-like, oval, 10–15 mm long and 10 mm broad, green maturing dark purple, with a soft edible pulp covering the single
seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...
. The seeds are dispersed by
bird Birds are a group of warm-blooded vertebrates constituting the class Aves (), characterised by feathers, toothless beaked jaws, the laying of hard-shelled eggs, a high metabolic rate, a four-chambered heart, and a strong yet lightweigh ...
s, which eat the 'berries' and pass the seeds in their droppings. Seeds are very difficult to germinate. It has a straight and cylindrical trunk, with gray and shiny bark. Before the genus ''
Prumnopitys ''Prumnopitys'' is a genus of conifers belonging to the family Podocarpaceae. The nine recognized species of ''Prumnopitys'' are densely branched, dioecious evergreen trees up to 40 metres in height. Etymology The name ''Prumnopitys'' comes ...
'' was distinguished, it was treated in the related genus ''
Podocarpus ''Podocarpus'' () is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family, the Podocarpaceae. The name comes from Greek πούς (poús, “foot”) + καρπός (karpós, “fruit”). ''Podocarpus'' species ...
'' as ''Podocarpus andinus''. It has also been treated by some botanists as ''Prumnopitys spicata'' (Molloy & Muñoz-Schick 1999); however this name is illegitimate (Mill & Quinn 2001). ''Prumnopitys elegans'' (Phil) is a synonym for ''Prumnopitys andina''. The fruit (an
aril An aril (pronounced ), also called an arillus, is a specialized outgrowth from a seed that partly or completely covers the seed. An arillode or false aril is sometimes distinguished: whereas an aril grows from the attachment point of the see ...
) are tasty, long, blue-purple in color, are eaten by Native American people in Chile, and a marmalade is produced with them. The tree is also occasionally grown as an ornamental tree and a
hedge A hedge or hedgerow is a line of closely spaced shrubs and sometimes trees, planted and trained to form a barrier or to mark the boundary of an area, such as between neighbouring properties. Hedges that are used to separate a road from adjoini ...
in oceanic climate areas in northwest
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and the
Pacific Northwest The Pacific Northwest (sometimes Cascadia, or simply abbreviated as PNW) is a geographic region in western North America bounded by its coastal waters of the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains to the east. Though ...
of
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...
. In these areas, it is also sometimes known as "plum-yew" or "plum-fruited yew", though these names are more commonly applied to plants in the genus ''
Cephalotaxus ''Cephalotaxus'', commonly called plum yew or cowtail pine, is a genus of conifers comprising 11 species, treated in either the Cephalotaxaceae, or in the Taxaceae when that family is considered in a broad sense. The genus is endemic to eastern A ...
''. The wood is a yellowish color and has a good quality. It is used in furniture and construction. Evidence suggests that very little regeneration is occurring to replace current ageing trees in populations. In 2007, the
Forestry Commission The Forestry Commission is a non-ministerial government department responsible for the management of publicly owned forests and the regulation of both public and private forestry in England. The Forestry Commission was previously also respon ...
planted large numbers of young trees at
Bedgebury Pinetum Bedgebury National Pinetum at Bedgebury, Kent, in the United Kingdom, is a recreational and conservational arboretum managed by Forestry England that was established as the National Conifer Collection in 1925 and is now recognised as the most ...
in the UK as part of a project aiming to conserve the genetic resources of endangered conifers.


References

*Donoso, C. 2005. Árboles nativos de Chile. Guía de reconocimiento. Edición 4. Marisa Cuneo Ediciones, Valdivia, Chile. 136p. *Hechenleitner, P., M. Gardner, P. Thomas, C. Echeverría, B. Escobar, P. Brownless y C. Martínez. 2005. Plantas Amenazadas del Centro-Sur de Chile. Distribución, Conservación y Propagación. Universidad Austral de Chile y Real Jardín Botánico de Edimburgo, Valdivia. 188p. *Hoffman, Adriana 1982. Flora silvestre de Chile, Zona Araucana. Edición 4. Fundación Claudio Gay, Santiago. 258p. *Rodríguez, R. y M. Quezada. 1995. Gymnospermae. En C. Marticorena y R. Rodríguez ds. Flora de Chile Vol. 1, p 310–337. Universidad de Concepción, Concepción. *Bean. W. Trees and Shrubs Hardy in Great Britain. Vol 1 - 4 and Supplement. Murray 1981. *Huxley. A. 1992. The New RHS Dictionary of Gardening. MacMillan Press 1992


External links

* * * Molloy, B. P. J. & Muñoz-Schick, M. 1999. The correct name for the Chilean conifer Lleuque (Podocarpaceae). ''New Zealand J. Bot.'' 37: 189–193. Availabl
online
(pdf file). * Mill, R. R. & Quinn, C. J. 2001. Prumnopitys andina reinstated as the correct name for ‘lleuque’, the Chilean conifer recently renamed P. spicata (Podocarpaceae). ''Taxon'' 50: 1143 - 1154. ***

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q459986 andina Trees of Chile Trees of Argentina Trees of mild maritime climate Ornamental trees Vulnerable plants