Podocarpus elongatus l'hér. ex Pers.

Rounded tree or spreading shrub usually 3-6 m high but attaining a height of 20 m; diameter of shrubs as much as 12 m. Bark thin, more or less persistent, greyish-green to dark grey. Branchlets pale yellowish-green, terete with grooves from decurrent leaf bases. Terminal buds of average branchlet about 2-3 mm in diameter; outer bud scales narrowly triangular-oblong, 4-6 mm long and about 1-5 mm wide. Leaves spirally arranged to subopposite, often crowded in upper parts of shoots and subverticillate, spreading to sub-erect, glaucous to greyish-green above, narrowly oblong-elliptic, tapering in the upper 1/2 to 1/3, but more abruptly near the tip, acute to subobtuse; adult leaves (1.8-)3-6(-7) cm long and (3-)4-5(-9) mm wide; juvenile leaves up to 12 cm long and 1 cm wide; midrib distinctly raised on lower surface, on upper surface slightly raised in lower half, margins flat to slightly recurved; stomata on lower surface in 15-30 ± distinct longitudinal rows on either side of midrib, on upper surface many leaves have 1 to several short rows of stomata in shallow longitudinal grooves. Male cones solitary or in groups of 2-5, generally ± sessile, more rarely on thin fertile shoots up to 7 mm long bearing 3-5 sessile cones in the axils of bracts, cones (1-)1.4-1.9(-2.5) cm long, elongating up to 3 or 4 cm after shedding pollen, (3-)4(-5) mm in diameter; outer sterile scales at base trullate-ovate to broadly transversely elliptic, contracted into a short tip, margin brown, scarious, denticulate, 2-3 mm long and 1.5-2 mm wide; terminal lobe of fertile scale triangular to ovate-triangular, denticulate to lacerate, 0.5-0.6 mm long and 0.6-0.8 mm wide; pollen sacs 0.9-1.3 mm long and 0.6-0.7 mm in diameter. Female cones solitary, on naked stalks (2-)4-6(-13) mm long and about 1 mm in diameter; receptacle fleshy, glaucous green at first, turning scarlet, when ripe 9-15 mm long and 10-16 mm wide, with 1 or 2 fertile scales, 1 or 2 seeds maturing on each receptacle. Seed ellipsoid to ovoid, slightly apiculate, (6-)7-10(-12) mm long, dark glaucous green; total thickness of shell 0-3-1 mm, consisting of 3 thin layers: the outer leathery, the middle one slightly woody and the inner pergament-aceous, mottled with dark purple, between middle and outer layers small deposits of yellow resin are common.