Podocarpus 'Rowallane'

Since the early 2000s a Podocarpus hybrid has been circulating in UK and Irish gardens as P. spinulosus. Genuine P. spinulosus is native to coastal habitats in subtropical eastern Australia and is very unlikely to be hardy in our area (Farjon 2017). Furthermore, the plants grown under this name in the UK and Ireland bear no resemblance to that species; they most likely represent a hybrid involving either P. laetus or P. totara and another shrubby species (pers. obs.).

These plants typically form upright shrubs with ascending branches and clustered branchlets; the leaves are rather short, yellowish near the base but glaucous near the apex. Much and perhaps all of this material is clonal, including plants distributed by Bedgebury National Pinetum under their accession 2003/075, and subsequently by the National Trust’s Plant Conservation Centre under their accession numbers 2010–0196 and 2015–0549. All this material is all ultimately traceable to an older plant at Rowallane, Northern Ireland, the origins of which are unclear (A. Crook & D. Luscombe pers. comms. 2023; J. Ryan pers. comm. 2025).

The cultivar name ‘Rowallane’ has recently been published so that these plants may have a legitimate name, but their ornamental merit is a matter of opinion (Christian 2024).