''Phyllocladus alpinus'', the mountain toatoa or mountain celery pine, is a species of

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 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 ...

. It is found only in

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 ...

. The form of this plant ranges from a shrub to a small tree of up to seven metres in height. This species is found in both the North and South Islands. An example occurrence of ''P. alpinus'' is within the understory of beech/

podocarp 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 ...

forests in the north part of

South Island The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...

, New Zealand. The species contains the flavan-3-ols

catechin Catechin is a flavan-3-ol, a type of secondary metabolite providing antioxidant roles in plants. It belongs to the subgroup of polyphenols called flavonoids. The name of the catechin chemical family derives from ''catechu'', which is the tannic ...

, epicatechin and

phylloflavan Phylloflavan is a phenolic compound found in the New Zealand Podocarpaceae ''Phyllocladus alpinus ''Phyllocladus alpinus'', the mountain toatoa or mountain celery pine, is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is found only in N ...

(ent-epicatechin-3-δ-(3,4-dihydroxyphenyl)-β-hydroxypentanoate).Phylloflavan, a characteristic constituent of Phyllocladus species. Lai Yeap Foo, Liana Hrstich and Christian Vilain, Phytochemistry, Volume 24, Issue 7, 1985, Pages 1495–1498, Phyllocladus alpinus Governors Bush Mount Cook 2

Phyllocladus alpinus Governors Bush Mount Cook 2

Conservation status

In both 2009 and 2012 it was deemed to be "Not Threatened" under the

New Zealand Threat Classification System The New Zealand Threat Classification System is used by the Department of Conservation to assess conservation priorities of species in New Zealand. The system was developed because the IUCN Red List, a similar conservation status system, had some ...

, and this New Zealand classification was reaffirmed in 2018.

Conservation status

See also

References

Further reading