Podocarpus spinulosus (Sm.) R.Br. ex Mirb.

Shrub usually to 1.5 m tall; exceptionally to 3 m, rather lax, spreading, layering. Bark thin, fibrous, often stringy. Branchlets slender, smooth with narrow grooves, the youngest shoots weakly ridged between grooves. Terminal buds 2–4 mm long, bud scales narrowly triangular, apices free, spreading. Leaves of juvenile and adult plants very similar, linear-lanceolate, 25–75 × 2–4.5 mm, midrib minutely raised above, more obvious beneath, blade green to yellow-green above, undersides glaucous green with prominent stomatal bands; base gradually tapering, subsessile; apex tapering, acute, pungent. Pollen cones solitary or in clusters of 2–5 on a common peduncle 1–4 mm long, cylindrical, 4–8 × 1.5–2.5 mm at maturity. Seed cones solitary, on peduncles 5–10 mm long subtended by reduced leaves, with two narrowly lanceolate bracts which fuse to become a swollen, fleshy, purple receptacle 6–10 × 6–7 mm when ripe, subtended by a single ovoid seed, 8–10 × 5–7 mm. (Farjon 2017).

Distribution  Australia New South Wales, Queensland

Habitat Sandy or otherwise nutrient deficient soils from 0–900 m asl. Near the ocean it occurs in coastal shrubland or in stabilised dune systems. Inland it is found in dry sclerophyll forest with Angophora, Casaurina and Eucalyptus species.

Conservation status Least concern (LC)