Distribution of the four varieties, redrawn from (1).
Common Names
Var. imbricatus: "Java: djamudju, kihadji, kipuiri, tjemoro (tukung), Tjidadap, S; kadju pakis, tjemara binèh, Md.; SW. Celebes (Bonthain): kayu angin, k. parang; Lesser Sunda Islands: Bali: tarupanda; Sumba: kayu awama, Lairondja, kadju uamang; Lombok: majangmekar; Flores: oh-ru, Ruteng; Timor: haae tuni, W. Timor, Nenas, ai-caqueu fuie, E. Timor, Tetun lang."Taxonomic notes
Syn: Podocarpus imbricatus Blume 1827; Podocarpus cupressina R.Br. ex Mirbel 1925; Podocarpus javanicus (non Burm.f) Merr. 1921 (1).Four varieties; imbricatus, curvulus, patulus, and robustus.
Key To The Varieties: (from (1))
1. Leaves slender (0.4-0.6 mm wide); involucral leaves always spreading.
2. Leaves spreading: var. patulus
1. Leaves robust (0.6-1 mm wide); involucral leaves sometimes clasping the receptacle.
3. Leaves imbricate: var. curvulus
Description
"Majestic columnar tree to 50 m tall, up to 2 m diam., crown large, often dome-shaped. Leaves of primary shoots imbricate; leaves of juvenile foliage shoots distichous, nearly linear, up to 10-17 mm long by 1.2-2.2 mm wide at the centre of a shoot, gradually losing the distichous habit as the tree matures, but shoots with more or less bilaterally flattened leaves distinctly longer in the middle of the shoot almost always present on even the oldest trees. Terminal shoots on young plants often elongated whip-like up to 20 cm. Leaves on older trees eventually becoming mostly scale-like, imbricate, distinctly keeled on the dorsal side, long-triangular, 1-1.8 by 0.4-0.6 mm. Involucral leaves becoming spreading, acicular, 2.5-4 mm long, rarely to 5 mm. Ripe receptacle red" (1).Range
N Burma, far S China, SE Asia, Malaya, Philippines (Luzon, Mindanao), Sumatra, Borneo, Java, Celebes, Moluccas (Morotal, Ceram), Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali-Timor), New Guinea (incl. New Britain and New Ireland), New Hebrides, and Fiji (1).Var. imbricatus is confined to Java, the Lesser Sunda Islands (Bali-Timor) and the SW. & C Celebes. It is "[m]ostly scattered and common in primary and secondary rain-forest, not rarely as an emergent, and co-dominant in West Java with Podocarpus neriifolius and Altingia noronhae, on the south slope of Mt Tjeremai volcano characterizing the zone between 2400-2700 m without other co-dominants, a situation not yet explained (van Steenis, 1972), in Timor found under more or less seasonal conditions in isolated specimens laden with Usnea [an epiphytic lichen] in grassland after deforestation, mostly between 1000-2500 m, but in Lombok reported as low as 200 m and in Celebes ascending to 3000 m. Probably exterminated at lower elevations in Java by deforestation" (1).
Big Tree
Oldest
Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
Var. imbricatus is a valuable timber tree (1).Observations
Remarks
On var. imbricatus: "Male flowers at Tjibodas in Aug.-Sept. Sometimes the stem of full-grown trees produces sprouts at the base" (1).Citations
(1) de Laubenfels 1988.(2) Van Royen 1979.
See also http://www.mckone.org/dac.html, a page devoted to D. imbricatus, containing many photographs.
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.geocities.com/~earlecj/po/da_s/imbricatus.htm
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
E-mail:earlecj@earthlink.com
Last modified on 19-Sep-1999