Feb 10, 2023
#1915 - Podocarpus nivalis - Snow Tōtara
An evergreen coniferous shrub native to the mountains of New Zealand, with fleshy fruit. It grows as shrubs a few meters across, and rarely more than a meter tall. Branches in contact with the ground often root. It can survive under snow for months, but requires frequent rain to thrive.
The podocarps or Plum Pines are a highly diverse family with a headache-inducing taxonomic history, but have a mostly Antarctic distribution, with only few species penetrating into the northern hemisphere. It’s currently believed that the family diverged from the Araucariaceae in the late Permian, over 250mya.
