Podocarpus latifolius fruit

    Podocarpus latifolius fruit
    Author: Ivan Lätti
    Photographer: Johan Wentzel

    Podocarpus latifolius, the real yellowwood, is the most common and widespread of the four well-known South African yellowwood trees. The stalkless leaves are narrowly elliptic and hard.

    The female tree bears bluish-green cones, the fruits that ripen red-brown and leathery. There is a fleshy, red receptacles or aril that is edible attached to the cone. This serves to induce the hungry consumers, birds and monkeys, to disperse the seeds. The cones are on the trees during summer. 

    Male trees have solitary, pinkish cones (Schmidt, et al, 2002; www.plantzafrica.com).

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