Microcachrys tetragona
Strawberry Creeping Pine
Strawberry Creeping Pine
Wikipedia links: Gymnosperms > Cupressales > Araucariaceae > Microcachrys tetragona
Other links:
Common name: Strawberry Creeping Pine
Also, Creeping strawberry pine
It shares the common name Creeping pine with several other plants
Conservation status: . . .
Etymology:
Cones and seed:
Females produce tiny, red, edible berries in summer
Leaves:
Its leaves are scale-like, arranged (unusually for the Podocarpaceae) in opposite decussate pairs, superficially resembling those of the unrelated Diselma archeri
Stem & branches:
Roots:
Habit:
Dioecious conifer shrub growing to 1 m tall at high altitudes
Habitat:
Mountain thickets and boulder-fields
Distribution:
Endemic to western Tasmania
The genus Microcachrys clearly had a very broad, Gondwanic distribution
But now, the sole surviving species, Microcachrys tetragona, is a shrub restricted to Tasmania
Additional notes:
Fossil record and paleoendemism
Microcachrys has been called one of the most spectacular cases of paleoendemism
It is a known relictual plant, being widespread in the past but now having a very restricted distribution
The only extant species today, Microcachrys tetragona, produces a very distinctive pollen grain compared with other members of its family, Podocarpaceae
Records of fossil pollen from the genus have been recorded from all over the Southern Hemisphere throughout the Cenozoic
Being found in Antarctica, Australia, the now sunken islands of the Ninety-east Ridge of the Indian Ocean, New Zealand, southern Africa and South America
Ocean drillings in the Kerguelen Plateau near Heard Island have revealed conifer remains with twigs very similar in appearance to those of Microcharys
The fossil record of Microcachrys is one of many compelling lines of evidence which points to the highly dynamic and changing Southern Hemisphere vegetation through the Cenozoic since the break up of Gondwana
Sources of information: