Dacrydium elatum (Roxb.) Wall. ex Loudon

Large tree, 8-40 m high, 0.1-1 m diam., with many slender, more or less erect branches and crowds of branchlets forming tufts which together construct a great billowy dome. Juvenile leaves linear-lanceolate, pungent, spreading but curved forward parallel to the branch, keeled on four sides, to at least 14 mm long, 0.3 mm wide and 0.2 mm thick, gradually becoming shorter and slightly broader with the leaves at the bases of ultimate shoots and on more vigorous shoots noticeably smaller and less spreading. Transitional forms which are sometimes fertile have spreading leaves slightly bent forward towards the acute tip, triangular in cross section, 0.3-0.4 mm wide, 0.2 mm thick, and 2-4 mm long, the leaves on vigorous shoots more nearly scale-like. Adult foliage shoots cord-like, 1-2 mm diam., leaves in the form of imbricate triangular scales 1-1.5 by 0.4-0.6 mm, sharply keeled on their exposed surface. Juvenile shoots sometimes mix with adult shoots thus giving a false impression that leaves change abruptly as the tree matures. The fertile structures are terminal. Pollen cones small, 4-5 mm long and 1-1.2 mm in diam. Apex of microsporophyll 0.5-0.8 mm long. The seed-bearing structure, even when produced on needle-bearing branches, is subtended by a scaly peduncle several mm long with scales about 1 mm long. The seed cone consists of about a dozen slightly elongated bracts 1.5-2 mm long. The solitary seed is 4-4.5 mm long.

Scattered in moist rain-forest, from sea-level but mostly above several hundred m to 1,700 m, growing most abundantly in open situations indicating a preference for disturbed conditions. It also appears to prosper on difficult soils (sandstone, granite, kerangas). Hardy and popular under cultivation in fully exposed sites. Does not enter into high mountain scrub.

Can be grown by cuttings or seedlings.