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Podocarpus elatus
Also called Illawarra Plum, Plum Pine, Turpentine Pine, Yellow Pine, Pencil Cedar, She Pine, White Pine
A large evergreen conifer from eastern Australia, growing to 30 to 36 m tall, grown as an ornamental and street tree in warm climates. It needs a warm, frost-free site and room to grow.
Podocarpus elatus, the plum pine, the brown pine, the Illawarra plum or the Queensland Christmas tree, is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae, endemic to the east coast of Australia, in eastern New South Wales and eastern Queensland.
It is a medium to large tree growing to 30–36 m tall with a trunk up to 1.5 m diameter. The leaves are lanceolate, 5–15 cm long (to 25 cm long on vigorous young trees) and 6–18 mm broad. The seed cones are dark blue-purple, berry-like, with a fleshy base 2-2.5 cm diameter bearing a single oval or globose seed 1 cm in diameter.
The fleshy part of the seed cone is edible, used in condiments. The timber was prized for furniture, joinery, boat planking, lining and piles in salt water. Podocarpus elatus is an attractive ornamental tree. In older Australian suburbs, the plum pine is used as an ornamental street tree, such as at Baldry Street, Chatswood.
Podocarpus aristulatus · Arius · Breede River Yellowwood · Henkel's Yellowwood · Broad-leaved Yellowwood · Podocarpus laubenfelsii · Mountain Plum Pine · Yew plum pine · Brown Pine · Alpine Totara · Chilean podocarp · Podocarpus pilgeri
Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Podocarpus elatus by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.
The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.
Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.
