  Part of branchlets with young and mature seeds (2).
| Dacrycarpus steupii (Wasscher) de Laubenfels 1969Common NamesNew Guinea: apè (Kapauko at Wissel Lakes), ibaro (Upper Waria), miejoop, nak (Kebar), pau (Enga), tuli (Jalibu) (2).Taxonomic notesSyn: Podocarpus steupii Wasscher 1941; P. papuanus (non Ridley) Steup 1938 (2).Description"Trees up to 35 m, bole up to 22 m, d.b.h. up to 100 cm, sometimes stunted. Outer bark black or brown, turning grey, not grooved, strongly peeling with small flakes or thin strips. Inner bark brown, reddish brown or pink. Sapwood yellowish brown or light creamy. Heartwood dark brown, light brown, orange yellow or yellowish brown. Leaves yellowish green, when young bilaterally flattened and distichous, 5-8 by 0.7-0.9 mm, mature ones shorter, not distichous, and variable in length, acicular, curved, 2-4 mm long, needle-tipped, margins and under-side crested, spreading, glabrous. Male flowers not seen. Female cone on a short, lateral, 3-7 mm long, shoot, involucral leaves elongate, widely spreading, 3-5 mm long, hardly reaching the base of the seed when ripe. Receptacle conoid, 2-3 mm long, worty. Sterile bract on one side, surpassing the receptacle, c. 2 mm long, 1 or 2 terminal bracts fertile, ovules green. Seeds pale bluish grey, globose, 5-6 by 4.5-5 mm, with a narrow, rounded crest at tip slightly curving over the tip of seed" (2)."The spreading needles give this species a rather distinct appearance from D. imbricatus var. robustus which it otherwise strongly resembles" (3). De Laubenfels (3) describes it as follows: "Conical tree, 4-36 m tall, 15-100 cm diam. Leaves of primary shoots spreading slightly. Leaves of juvenile foliage shoots distichous, nearly linear, soon losing the distichous habit as the tree matures. Leaves on older trees eventually becoming nearly quadrangular in cross section, widely spreading, tapering slightly, uniform in size along a shoot, 2-3 by 0.4-0.6 mm. Involucral leaves becoming spreading, 3-4 mm long." RangeCentral E. Borneo (G. Beratus, near Balikpapan), Central Celebes (Latimodjong Mts) and throughout New Guinea. "Locally common, particularly in disturbed forests, or in poorly drained areas where it may form nearly pure stands, in boggy grasslands and reed-swamps, on sandy clay, once on a rocky riverbank, once on a limestone hillock in mossy forest (Mt Beratus), 860-3420 m, but mostly c. 1500-2000 m" (3).Distribution in New Guinea is as follows: "TNG. Lai Valley, Wabag Valley, Aiyura, Mt Amumgwiwa, Sarawaket Range, Aseki Valley. "PAPUA. Lake Buneh, Era River, Milne bay area. "This species is usually found in protected gulleys from the upper lowland forests to the subalpine shrubberies, 660-3470 m. Flowers probably the whole year round" (2). Big TreeOldestDendrochronologyEthnobotanyObservationsRemarksCitations(1) Silba 1986.(2) Van Royen 1979. (3) de Laubenfels 1988. |
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