Podocarpaceae

Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly Southern Hemisphere conifers. There are about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. Conifers of the World. Portland, Oregon: Timber Press. . It has up to 19 genera. The distribution of this family suggests its early evolution took place in the ancient southern continent of Gondwana.

The family is a member of the Antarctic flora. Its main centres of diversity are in Australasia, particularly New Caledonia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. They are also in Malesia and South America (mainly in the Andes mountains).

Several genera extend north of the equator into Indochina and the Philippines. Podocarpus goes as far north as southern Japan and southern China in Asia, and Mexico in the Americas, and Nageia into southern China and southern India. Two genera also occur in sub-Saharan Africa, the widespread Podocarpus and the endemic Afrocarpus.

Parasitaxus usta is unique as the only known parasitic gymnosperm. It occurs on New Caledonia, where it is parasitic on another member of the Podocarpaceae, Falcatifolium taxoides.William T. Sinclair et al 2002. Evolutionary relationships of the New Caledonian heterotrophic conifer, Parasitaxis usta (Podocarpaceae), inferred from chloroplast trnL-F intron/spacer and nuclear rDNA ITS2 sequences. Plant Systematics and Evolution 233 (1–2): 79–104. 

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Category:Conifers
Category:Plant families