Toatoa

It is a medium-sized evergreen coniferous tree, growing to 20 m tall . The leaves are minute, brown and scale-like, less than 1 mm long, and sparsely produced; what looks like leaves on the plant are actually modified stems called phylloclades. These phylloclades are diamond-shaped, 2–5 cm long, 1–2 cm broad and 0.5 mm thick, light yellowish green above, strongly glaucous blue-green below with stomatal wax, and with a bluntly toothed or lobed margin. The phylloclades are borne spirally on green stems; each phylloclade has a scale leaf at its base. The cones are highly modified, with several scales, each scale berry-like with a red and white aril and a single seed.

Phyllocladus aspleniifolius (Celery-top pine) is an endemic gymnosperm of Tasmania, Australia. It is found in rainforest as a dominant, in eucalypt forest as an understorey species, and occurs occasionally as a shrub in alpine vegetation. It is confined to areas of high rainfall and low fire frequency. It is a medium-sized evergreen coniferous tree, growing to 20 m tall (rarely 30 m, and often shrubby at high altitudes). More

Phyllocladus aspleniifolius (Celerytop pine) in fruit. These are beautiful fruit and the structure is quite peculiar. The red bracts are fleshy cone scales, the white flesh is an aril and the dark spot is actually the true fruit, containing a single seed. More