13.000 Podocarpus L'Hér. ex Pers. - Yellow-woods

Trees or shrubs, evergreen. Leaves spirally arranged to sub-opposite; juvenile leaves similar to adult ones, often larger; lamina linear, lanceolate or ovate-elliptic, mid-vein single, often raised on 1 or both surfaces, stomatal lines present on abaxial surface. Pollen cones axillary, solitary or clustered, pedunculate or sessile; microsporophylls numerous, spirally arranged. Seed cones usually axillary, usually solitary; apical bracts fertile; basal bracts often fused to form a receptacle. Seeds drupe-like, dry or leathery, sometimes coloured and succulent.

Derivation of name: from Greek: podos meaning foot and carpos a fruit, referring to the fleshy ‘foot’ or receptacle on which the fruit of some species develops.

Worldwide: 94 species extending from temperate zones in the southern hemisphere though tropical highlands to the West Indies and Japan.

Zimbabwe: 3 cultivated taxa.