Flora of New Zealand Series

Plants monoec. or dioec.; male strobili cylindric, stalked, fascicled at apices of branchlets; sporophylls bisporangiate, apiculus small; female branchlets solitary in axils of basal scales of arrested branchlets or sessile in phylloclades or replacing phylloclades. Carpidia 1-ovuled, decussate or spiral, thick, truncate at apex, axis ± fleshy. Ovules erect, surrounded by a basal disc forming a cupule, = or < the seeds. Lvs spirally arranged, ± caducous. Phylloclades formed of flattened, concrescent branchlets, with rud. lvs in form of minute denticles. Trees or shrubs. Spp. about 6, N.Z., Tasmania, New Guinea, Borneo, Philippines. The N.Z. spp. apparently all endemic.

HYBRIDISM: Hybrids have been suspected between P. glaucus and P. trichomanoides, but both spp. are polymorphic and their life histories have not been adequately worked out. P. alpinus is also polymorphic and possibly several vars are included in the present description. Adequate comparison of our forms with those of the Tasmanian P. aspleniifolius have not been made.