Callitris Vent.

Monoecious trees or shrubs. Branches erect, spreading or fastigiate. Bark persistent, hard and compact (fibrous in C. macleayana ). Juvenile leaves acicular, triangular in cross-section, in whorls of 4, spreading, basally shortly decurrent. Adult leaves in alternating whorls of 3, decurrent for much of their length; free tip triangular in section and often appressed; dorsal surface rounded or keeled. Male cones terminal on short branches, solitary, paired or clustered, comprising numerous alternating, trimerous whorls of imbricate scales; each with 2-6 abaxial microsporangia; pollen spherical, not saccate. Female cones solitary or clustered on short lateral branches, comprising 2 whorls of 3 fertile scales with a reduced internode, to form a 6-merous cone (rarely 8 in species 12 & 14); outer whorl of scales often smaller than the inner; fertile scales each with 1-8 erect ovules and subtended by an adnate sterile bract which may form a dorsal protuberance. Mature cones persistent or deciduous. Seeds 1-8 per scale, 1-3-winged.