''Saxegothaea'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus com ...

comprising a single

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

, ''Saxegothaea conspicua''. It is a

conifer Conifers are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a single ...

in the podocarp family

Podocarpaceae Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers, known in English as podocarps, comprising about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Pre ...

, native to southern

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

. It grows in

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

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 35° to 46° South latitude; in its northernmost natural distribution it grows between 800 and 1000 (2600–3300 ft) m above sea level and in the south it lives at sea level. The species is most often known by its genus name, or sometimes as female maniu (a translation of its name in Spanish) and Prince Albert's yew; in South America it is known as mañío hembra or maniú hembra. The genus name of ''Saxegothaea'' is in honour of Franz August Carl Albert Emanuel von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1819–1861), who was the consort of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Lindley wrote "This remarkable plant, to which His Royal Highness Prince Albert has been pleased to permit one of his titles to be given, and which will probably rank among the most highly valued of our hardy evergreen trees, is a native of the mountains of Patagonia, where it was found by Mr. William Lobb, forming a beautiful tree 30 feet high." When he published the plant in J. Hort. Soc. London vol.6 on page 258 in 1851. It is a slow-growing, long-lived evergreen

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 ...

growing to 15–25 m (50–80 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 1 m in diameter. The bark is thin and flaky to scaly, dark purple-brown. 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 arranged in an irregular spiral; they are lanceolate, 1.5–3 cm long, 2 mm broad, fairly hard with a prickly spine tip, dark green above, and with two glaucous blue-white

stomata In botany, a stoma (from Greek ''στόμα'', "mouth", plural "stomata"), also called a stomate (plural "stomates"), is a pore found in the epidermis of leaves, stems, and other organs, that controls the rate of gas exchange. The pore is bor ...

l bands below. The

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

are 1 cm long, with 15-20 soft scales; usually only 2-4 scales on each cone are fertile, bearing a 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 ...

3 mm in diameter. ''Saxegothaea'' is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the

Valdivian temperate rain forests The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainforest ...

of southern

and adjacent parts of

, where it is generally found in association with ''

Pilgerodendron uviferum ''Pilgerodendron'' is a genus of conifer belonging to the cypress family Cupressaceae. It has only one species, ''Pilgerodendron uviferum'', which is endemic to the Valdivian temperate rain forests and Magellanic subpolar forests of southern Ch ...

'' and ''

Fitzroya cupressoides ''Fitzroya'' is a monotypic genus in the cypress family. The single living species, ''Fitzroya cupressoides'', is a tall, long-lived conifer native to the Andes mountains and coastal of southern Chile, and only to the Andes mountains Argentina, ...

''. The wood has a good quality and is used in furniture and barrels.

References

External links

*

Photos of mature trees, bark and foliage at Puerto Blest National Park,

Nahuel Huapi Nahuel Huapi National Park () is the oldest national park in Argentina, established in 1934. It surrounds Nahuel Huapi Lake in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes. The largest of the national parks in the region, it has an area of , or nearl ...

, Argentina * * {{Taxonbar, from1=Q13080853, from2=Q1433727 Podocarpaceae Flora of the Andes Flora of central Chile Trees of Chile Trees of Argentina Trees of mild maritime climate Valdivian temperate rainforest Near threatened flora of South America Monotypic conifer genera Podocarpaceae genera