Sundacarpus is a genus of conifers in the family Podocarpaceae. It was established by Christopher Nigel Page in 1989 and contains a single species – Sundacarpus amarus – which had formerly been classified variously as a species of Podocarpus or of Prumnopitys. In Australia it is treated as Prumnopitys amara (Blume) de Laub.

Description

Sundacarpus amarus is a large evergreen tree, in height, with a trunk from in diameter. The leaves are long and narrow.

Distribution and habitat

Sundacarpus amarus is native to parts of Australia and Malesia. In Australia, the genus is found only in Queensland, primarily on the Atherton Tableland and adjacent parts of northeastern coastal Queensland. It is quite common in New Guinea, New Britain, and New Ireland, where it is often found in montane forests together with southern beech (Nothofagus). Sundacarpus amarus is also found on the Indonesian islands of Buru, Halmahera, Morotai, Sulawesi, Lombok, Flores, Timor, Sumbawa, Java, Sumatra, in Sabah province on the island of Borneo and on Mindanao and Luzon in the Philippines.

References

Further reading

  • de Laubenfels, D. J. (1988). Coniferales. pp. 337–453 in Flora Malesiana, Series I, Vol. 10. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic.
  • Page, C. N. (1989). New and maintained genera in the conifer families Podocarpaceae and Pinaceae. Notes of the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh 45 (2): 377–395.
  • Sundacarpus amarus at the Gymnosperm Database