''Prumnopitys'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

of conifers belonging to the 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 Pr ...

. The nine recognized

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 ...

of ''Prumnopitys'' are densely branched, dioecious

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, whic ...

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 ...

s up to 40 metres in height.

Etymology

The name ''Prumnopitys'' comes from the Ancient Greek ' ( ‘hindmost’) and ' ( ‘pine’), referring to the

resin In polymer chemistry and materials science, resin is a solid or highly viscous substance of plant or synthetic origin that is typically convertible into polymers. Resins are usually mixtures of organic compounds. This article focuses on n ...

duct being behind the midrib.

Description

The leaves are similar to those of the yew, strap-shaped, 1–4 cm long and 2–3 mm broad, with a soft texture; they are green above, and with two blue-green stomatal bands below. 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, reduced to a central stem 1–5 cm long bearing several scales; from one to five scales are fertile, each with 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 ...

surrounded by fleshy scale tissue, resembling a drupe. These berry-like cone scales are eaten 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 lightweig ...

s which then disperse the seeds in their droppings.

Distribution

The species are distributed on both sides of the Pacific, in eastern Australia,

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

, and New Caledonia, and along the mountain ranges of western

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 sout ...

from

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 ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

and Costa Rica. This distribution indicates the origins of ''Prumnopitys'' in the Antarctic flora, which evolved from the humid temperate flora of southern Gondwana, an ancient supercontinent.

Taxonomy

Although the genus ''Prumnopitys'' was first described in 1861, it was only from 1978 that it was widely distinguished as distinct from the allied 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 ...

'', despite the marked differences in cone development with different parts of the cone structure becoming fleshy and berry-like. Many older texts still have the species listed under ''Podocarpus''. The Chilean species for which the correct scientific name is ''

Prumnopitys andina ''Prumnopitys andina'', the lleuque or Chilean plum yew,Muñoz-Schick 1999); however this name is illegitimate (Mill & Quinn 2001). Several species of ''Prumnopitys'' are used for timber, though as they are slow-growing, supplies are very limited and over-cutting has led to some having an unfavourable conservation status.

References

Gymnosperm Database: ''Prumnopitys''
* de Laubenfels, D. J. 1978. The genus ''Prumnopitys'' (Podocarpaceae). ''Blumea'' 24: 189-190. * de Laubenfels, D. J. 1988. Coniferales. in ''Flora Malesiana'', Series I, 10: 337-453. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic. * 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=Q138688 Podocarpaceae genera Dioecious plants