Podocarps (Podocarpaceae)

This group gathers Conifers and Other Gymnosperms subcategory members belonging to the podocarp family, Podocarpaceae, a predominantly Southern Hemisphere conifer family especially diverse in New Zealand, where several species dominate native forest canopies. Like the yews, most podocarps bear their seed on a fleshy, often colorful receptacle rather than in a woody cone, an adaptation that in several species encourages birds to disperse the seed by eating the fruit-like structure. It spans New Zealand's own totara, rimu and kahikatea, each a major component of that country's native forest, the African yellowwoods of the genus Afrocarpus and Podocarpus, and the Tasmanian Huon pine, called pine despite belonging here rather than to the true pines, prized for a durable, insect-resistant timber and among the slowest-growing and longest-lived trees in the world.