This tree looks very like a pine tree, but is not remotely related to the conifers. What appear to be dark green needles, are in fact sle...Read Morender branchlets. There are leaves on the tree, but they are reduced to a ring of minute teeth round the stem at intervals. The tree is dioecious, which means that the flowers are single sex and are found on different trees. The male flowers are catkin-like, being rings of stamens around the end nodes of the branchlets, changing the colour of the tree to reddish-orange, when in flower. The female flowers are tufts of red stigmas, along the branches and if fertilised (they are wind-pollinated) develop into hard woody cone-like seed capsules full of winged seeds.
Seed is held for a long time on the female trees and is easily collected, the cones opening rapidly when picked.
I have one growing well in my garden, now about 5 metres tall. It has proved to be a male, so no cones will be produced.
I have also grown this species extensively for revegetation projects in this area.
This tree looks very like a pine tree, but is not remotely related to the conifers. What appear to be dark green needles, are in fact sle...Read More