Libocedrus
Credits
Article from New Trees by John Grimshaw & Ross Bayton
Recommended citation
'Libocedrus' from the website Trees and Shrubs Online (treesandshrubsonline.
Family
- Cupressaceae
Editorial Note
The account of Libocedrus that follows below is from New Trees (Grimshaw & Bayton 2009). When W.J. Bean penned his account of this genus it had a far broader circumscription than it does today; species that are now placed in different genera including Austrocedrus, Calocedrus, and Pilgerodendron, all used to be placed in Libocedrus. All three of these genera now have their own accounts on Trees and Shrubs Online, and therefore there is little value in retaining Bean’s introduction to the genus here. Bean’s comments on the two New Zealand species that are still in Libocedrus are retained in their individual articles for the time being. If you would like to sponsor the revision of Libocedrus please write to editor@treesandshrubsonline.org
TC, February 2025.
Libocedrus in its current delimitation includes only five species: three in New Caledonia and two in New Zealand (Farjon 2001). Libocedrus species are small to large evergreen trees or shrubs with a conical habit. The bark is thin and fibrous, and sheds in long strips. The branchlets are dorsiventrally flattened, distichous and fan-shaped. The juvenile leaves are long and spreading. The mature leaves are in pairs, scale-like, appressed and decussate; they are acute and somewhat dimorphic. Male and female strobili are solitary and terminal, and produced on different branches on the same tree. The male strobili are oblong, with 6–12 decussate sporophylls. The female cones are ovoid and erect, valvate, woody and mature in the first year. The seed scales are arranged in two basally fused, decussate pairs, though only the inner pair is fertile; the seed scales have a triangular, spiny umbo. There are one or two lenticular seeds per fertile scale, and each seed develops a short, rudimentary wing and a long, fully formed wing. The species from New Caledonia are unlikely to be hardy in temperate areas, but the two from New Zealand (L. bidwillii and L. plumosa (D. Don) Sarg.) are both in cultivation in Europe (Allan 1961, Dallimore et al. 1966, Salmon 1980).
