Afrocarpus gaussenii
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''Afrocarpus falcatus'' (
syn. The Botanical and Zoological Codes of nomenclature treat the concept of synonymy differently. * In botanical nomenclature, a synonym is a scientific name that applies to a taxon that (now) goes by a different scientific name. For example, Linnae ...
''Podocarpus falcatus'') is a species of tree in the family Podocarpaceae. It is native to the montane forests of southern Africa, where it is distributed in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, and
Eswatini Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...
. Common names include common yellowwood, bastard yellowwood, outeniqua yellowwood, African pine tree, weeping yew,''Afrocarpus falcatus'' (Thunb.) C.N.Page.
Plant Resources of Tropical Africa (PROTA).
af, outeniekwageelhout, ''kalander'', st, mogôbagôba, xh, umkhoba and zu, umsonti.Protected Trees.
Department of Water Affairs and Forestry, Republic of South Africa. 3 May 2013.
It is widespread, in some areas abundant, and not considered threatened, but it is a protected tree in South Africa. It is grown as an
ornamental tree Ornamental plants or garden plants are plants that are primarily grown for their beauty but also for qualities such as scent or how they shape physical space. Many flowering plants and garden varieties tend to be specially bred cultivars that i ...
, especially in South Africa, and occasionally abroad.


Description

This is an evergreen
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 ...
often growing up to about 45 meters tall, but known to reach 60 m. At higher elevations and in exposed, coastal habitat it rarely exceeds 25 m tall. The trunk can be 2 to 3 m wide, and is gray-brown to reddish. It is smooth and ridged on young stems, but increasingly flaky on older trunks. The leaves are arranged in spirals on the branches. They are small and narrow, up to 4.5 cm long by about 6 mm wide. They are green to yellowish, hairless, and leathery and somewhat waxy in texture. It is a
dioecious Dioecy (; ; adj. dioecious , ) is a characteristic of a species, meaning that it has distinct individual organisms (unisexual) that produce male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproductio ...
species, with male and female structures on separate plants. The male cone is brown with spiralling scales and measures 5 to 15 mm long by 3 mm wide. It grows from the leaf axils. The female cone has one scale bearing one seed about 1 to 2 cm long. The gray-green seed is
drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...
-like with a woody coat covered in a fleshy, resinous skin. Some of the largest individuals occur in the Knysna-Amatole montane forests, where some specimens are over 1,000 years old.


Biology

Female trees bear their fruit irregularly, only every few years. The fleshy epimatium of the
strobilus A strobilus (plural: strobili) is a structure present on many land plant species consisting of sporangia-bearing structures densely aggregated along a stem. Strobili are often called cones, but some botanists restrict the use of the term cone to th ...
(or "cone") covers all of the seed, and ripens to a yellow colour, when it acquires a soft, jelly-like consistency. The main agents of seed dispersal are fruit bats, which eat the fleshy covering but discard the hard, woody seed. Many birds feed on the fruits, such as Cape parrot, purple-crested turaco, Knysna turaco, Ross's turaco,
African olive pigeon The African olive pigeon or Rameron pigeon (''Columba arquatrix'') is a pigeon which is a resident breeding bird in much of eastern and southern Africa from Ethiopia to the Cape. Populations also are found in western Angola, southwestern Saudi Ara ...
,
African green pigeon The African green pigeon (''Treron calvus'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae, and one of 5 green pigeon species in the Afrotropics. The species has a wide range in Sub-Saharan Africa with around 17 accepted races. Description and ...
, and
eastern bronze-naped pigeon The eastern bronze-naped pigeon (''Columba delegorguei'') is a species of bird in the family Columbidae. It is found in Angola, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It is part of the '' Tur ...
. Animals that feed on the seeds include
colobus monkeys Black-and-white colobuses (or colobi) are Old World monkeys of the genus ''Colobus'', native to Africa. They are closely related to the red colobus monkeys of genus '' Piliocolobus''. There are five species of this monkey, and at least eight subs ...
, bushpigs,
hornbill Hornbills (Bucerotidae) are a family (biology), family of bird found in tropical and subtropical Africa, Asia and Melanesia. They are characterized by a long, down-curved bill which is frequently brightly coloured and sometimes has a Casque (an ...
s, turacos, and rodents. These may not be effective seed dispersal agents, because it appears that seeds that have gone through animal guts do not germinate well. The tree has been found to host arbuscular mycorrhizae. It may grow as a solitary tree, in small clusters, or in wide monotypic stands. It is associated with
African juniper ''Juniperus procera'' (known by the common English names African juniper, African pencil-cedar, East African juniper, East African-cedar, and Kenya-cedar) is a coniferous tree native to mountainous areas in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. It is ...
(''Juniperus procera'').


Uses

The wood, often called podo or yellowwood, is good for construction, particularly shipbuilding. It is also made into
plywood Plywood is a material manufactured from thin layers or "plies" of wood veneer that are glued together with adjacent layers having their wood grain rotated up to 90 degrees to one another. It is an engineered wood from the family of manufactured ...
and used to make many products, including
furniture Furniture refers to movable objects intended to support various human activities such as seating (e.g., stools, chairs, and sofas), eating (tables), storing items, eating and/or working with an item, and sleeping (e.g., beds and hammocks). Fu ...
, boxes, vats, toys, farm implements, musical instruments, and railroad ties. It is used in the construction of houses. It is also used as
firewood Firewood is any wooden material that is gathered and used for fuel. Generally, firewood is not highly processed and is in some sort of recognizable log or branch form, compared to other forms of wood fuel like pellets or chips. Firewood can ...
. Some examples of South African yellowwood antique woodworking were created with the wood of this tree. The wood is also used for making floor boards and parquet blocks. The bark contains 3-4% tannin and is used for tanning leather.Making the Most of Indigenous Trees by Fanie & Julye-Ann Venter, Briza Publications, Pretoria, South Africa, First edition 1996, The wood is useful, but not very durable, as it is susceptible to blue stain fungus, powderpost beetles, longhorn beetles, and termites. The seed is edible, but resinous. The
bark Bark may refer to: * Bark (botany), an outer layer of a woody plant such as a tree or stick * Bark (sound), a vocalization of some animals (which is commonly the dog) Places * Bark, Germany * Bark, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, Poland Arts, ...
and seeds have been used in traditional African medicine. The tree is cultivated as an ornamental and a windbreak, and to prevent erosion. It has been used as a
Christmas tree A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, or an artificial tree of similar appearance, associated with the celebration of Christmas. The custom was further developed in early modern ...
.


Conservation

The species has been vulnerable to
logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...
, a practice which likely claimed many large, ancient specimens. In parts of South Africa logging has ceased, but in other regions the situation is not known. In general, it is not considered a current threat.


Gallery


References


External links


PlantZAfrica.com



Images on iSpot

SA Forestry Magazine
{{Taxonbar, from=Q916650 Podocarpaceae Afromontane flora Flora of Malawi Flora of Mozambique Flora of Swaziland Flora of South Africa Flora of the Cape Provinces Trees of Africa Least concern plants Least concern biota of Africa Protected trees of South Africa Trees of Mediterranean climate Garden plants of Southern Africa Ornamental trees Plants used in bonsai