African Yellowwood is a large conifer native to the highland forests of eastern and southern Africa, from Ethiopia south through Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe into South Africa. It is one of the tallest trees in southern African forests, with mature individuals reaching 30 meters or more and developing broad, spreading crowns and thick, buttressed trunks with age. The tree belongs to the podocarp family and produces fleshy, plum like seed coverings rather than true pine cones, an ancient conifer lineage that predates the flowering plants that now dominate many African forests. Its yellowish timber has long been prized in South Africa for furniture and flooring, and some individual trees in protected forests are estimated to be many centuries old.
Facts
Classification
DietPhotosynthetic Autotroph 1 System (Realm) Relationship to PeopleUsed in Traditional Medicine 3 Living or Extinct Scientific Name Connections
Child Taxon Of
Source GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Podocarpus latifolius
In Biome
Source Podocarpus latifolius (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Found In
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Global Biodiversity Information Facility: GBIF species distributions: African YellowwoodDistributionsQuote, Distributions
"locality": "Democratic Republic of the Congo", "country": "CD", "status": "PRESENT", "establishmentMeans": "NATIVE", "source": "Checklist of the vascular plants of the Democratic Republic of the Congo"
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Global Biodiversity Information Facility: GBIF species distributions: African YellowwoodDistributionsQuote, Distributions
"locality": "Eswatini", "source": "The World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP)"
Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.
Source Global Biodiversity Information Facility: GBIF species distributions: African YellowwoodDistributionsQuote, Distributions
"locality": "Lesotho", "source": "The World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP)"
Sources
1. Podocarpus latifolius (Wikipedia)
Lead
Podocarpus latifolius (real yellowwood, broad-leaved yellowwood, or South African yellowwood, Afrikaans: Opregte-geelhout, Northern Sotho: Mogôbagôba, Xhosa: Umcheya, Zulu: Umkhoba) is a large coniferous tree growing up to 35 m tall and 3 m in trunk diameter.
Lead, sentence naming the group it belongs to
Podocarpus latifolius (real yellowwood, broad-leaved yellowwood, or South African yellowwood, Afrikaans: Opregte-geelhout, Northern Sotho: Mogôbagôba, Xhosa: Umcheya, Zulu: Umkhoba) is a large coniferous tree growing up to 35 m tall and 3 m in trunk diameter.
In Biome: Temperate Forest, Habitat
It is commonly found in afro-temperate forests and often in mountainous areas.
View the Source2. Global Biodiversity Information Facility: GBIF species profiles for Podocarpus latifolius
Global Biodiversity Information FacilitySpecies profileQuote, Species profile
"taxonKey": 5285951, "habitat": "Terrestrial", "source": "Global Register of Introduced and Invasive Species - India"
3. The Gymnosperm Database: Podocarpus latifolius
The Gymnosperm DatabaseEthnobotany: bark and leaf remediesQuote, Ethnobotany: bark and leaf remedies
Traditionally, the Maasai of Kenya use a bark infusion to treat stomach ache, and in Uganda a leaf decoction is taken as vermifuge.
4. GBIF Backbone Taxonomy: Podocarpus latifolius
GBIF Backbone TaxonomyTaxon recordQuote, Taxon record
"canonicalName": "Podocarpus latifolius"
Plant (Wikipedia)
Lead, whole group is photosyntheticQuote, Lead, whole group is photosynthetic
They are predominantly photosynthetic or came from photosynthetic ancestors, meaning that they obtain their energy from sunlight by using the green pigment chlorophyll in their chloroplasts to produce sugars from carbon dioxide and water.
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