Afrocarpus
Genus of conifers
title: "Afrocarpus" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["podocarpaceae", "podocarpaceae-genera", "dioecious-plants", "flora-of-the-afrotropical-realm"] description: "Genus of conifers" topic_path: "general/podocarpaceae" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afrocarpus" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0
::summary Genus of conifers ::
| image = Outeniqua Yellowwood tree Cape Town.jpg | image_caption = Afrocarpus falcatus | taxon = Afrocarpus | authority = (J.Buchholz & N.E.Gray) C.N.Page | type_species = Afrocarpus falcatus | type_species_authority = (Thunberg) C.N.Page | subdivision_ranks = Species | subdivision = 5 – see text
Afrocarpus is a genus of conifer of the family Podocarpaceae. Five species are recognized. They are evergreen trees native to Africa. Afrocarpus was designated a genus in 1989, when several species formerly classified in Podocarpus and Nageia were reclassified.
Taxonomy
Afrocarpus was originally erected in 1948 as a section of the genus Podocarpus, following a review of the latter by botanists John Theodore Buchholz and Netta Elizabeth Gray. It was raised to genus status by Christopher Nigel Page in 1989, a move well supported by more recent studies. In a 2009 treatment of the genus, only two species were recognized; A. dawei, A. gracilior, and A. usambarensis were sunk into A. falcatus. The reason for this merger was that "variation across the group appears to be essentially continuous". , The Gymnosperm Database accepts the five species listed here.
Afrocarpus gaussenii was based on a single specimen of a cultivated individual of Afrocarpus falcatus in Madagascar. Its distinctive features might have resulted from the conditions of its cultivation. No species of Afrocarpus is known to be native to Madagascar.
Studies based on anatomical, biogeographical, morphological, and DNA evidence suggest the following relationships: ::data[format=table]
| Knopf 2012 | Stull 2021 |
|---|---|
| label1=Afrocarpus | |
| :: |
Species
::data[format=table]
| Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afrocarpus dawei | Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Congo | Native to the highlands of east Africa | ||
| [[File:Afrocarpus falcatus, loof en bas, LC de Villiers-sportsentrum.jpg | 120px]] | Afrocarpus falcatus | common yellowwood, bastard yellowwood, outeniqua yellowwood, African fern pine, weeping yew | South Africa, Swellendam District of Western Cape Province to Limpopo Province, and into southern Mozambique |
| [[File:Starr 061224-2869 Podocarpus sp..jpg | 120px]] | Afrocarpus gracilior | East African yellowwood | Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda |
| [[File:Afrocarpus mannii-Jardin des Plantes de Paris (3).jpg | 120px]] | Afrocarpus mannii | Pinheiro de São Tomé (lit. São Tomé pine) | São Tomé Island in the Gulf of Guinea |
| Afrocarpus usambarensis | Usambara yellowwood | Burundi, Rwanda, the Congo, and Lushoto and Mbulu districts of Tanzania. | ||
| :: |
Description
Afrocarpus are evergreen trees. The individuals of the largest species, Afrocarpus falcatus, may reach a height of 60 meters. The thin bark often peels with scale-like plates.
The leaves are simple and flat. The phyllotaxis or leaf arrangement is usually spiral but may be opposite on young plants. The leaves are generally lanceolate in shape and coriaceous in texture. They have a single visible midrib. Stomata are found on both surfaces of the leaf.
Afrocarpus are dioecious, with male pollen cones and female seed cones borne on separate individual plants. The cones are short pedunculate and usually develop from axillary buds.
The male pollen cones are narrowly cylindrical and resemble catkins. They grow in small groups of two or three cones. The peduncles are glabrous. Each pollen cone has numerous spirally inserted microsporophylls each with two basal pollen sacs producing bisaccate pollen.
The female seed cones are solitary. Their peduncles may have small scale leaves. The cones consist of several sterile cone scales and one fertile cone scale with just one seed producing ovule. The sterile scales wither as the cone matures, unlike in the closely related genus Podocarpus where the scales fuse to form a fleshy receptacle. A part of the scale supporting the ovule develops into a rounded fleshy covering enclosing the seed entirely known as the epimatium. At maturity the epimatium varies in shape from subglobose to elliptic or obovoid and in color from greenish to yellow or brown.
DecussocarpusFalcatusFoliage.JPG|The long lanceolate to sometimes falcate leaves of A. falcatus. Starr 980528-4058 Podocarpus sp..jpg|A. gracilior male cones growing in clusters. Starr 061224-2850 Afrocarpus gracilior.jpg|An A. gracilior cone showing a yellow epimatium around the seed. Southafrica428yellowwood.jpg|A very large tree of A. falcatus.
Distribution
As the name intimates, Afrocarpus is native to Africa. The species are distributed through the Afromontane forests of eastern and southern Africa, descending to the Indian Ocean coast in South Africa. The genus is native to Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.
The podocarps are associated with the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana, where they were characteristic of the cool, moist southern Gondwana flora. Gondwana broke up into the continents of South America, Africa, India, Australia, and Antarctica between 160 and 30 million years ago. As Africa drifted north, it became hotter and drier, and the podocarps generally retreated to the cool, moist highlands of eastern and southern Africa.
Uses
In South Africa, this wood is mostly used to make exclusive furniture.
References
References
- Christopher N. Page. 1989. "New and maintained genera in the conifer families Podocarpaceae and Pinaceae". ''Notes of the Royal Botanical Garden Edinburgh'' 45(2): 377-395.
- James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Timber Press: Portland, OR, USA. {{ISBN. 978-0-88192-974-4.
- (2021). "Gene duplications and phylogenomic conflict underlie major pulses of phenotypic evolution in gymnosperms". Nature Plants.
- (2021). "main.dated.supermatrix.tree.T9.tre". Figshare.
- Earle, Christopher J.. (2012). "''Afrocarpus''".
- Earle, Christopher J.. (2015). "''Afrocarpus falcatus''".
- Farjon, Aljos. (2010). "A Handbook of the World's Conifers". Brill.
- (2012). "Relationships within Podocarpaceae based on DNA sequence, anatomical, morphological, and biogeographical data". Cladistics.
- (2025). "''Afrocarpus'' (J.Buchholz & N.E.Gray) C.N.Page, Notes Roy. Bot. Gard. Edinburgh 45(2): 383 (1989)". [[Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew]].
- (1948). "A Taxonomic Revision of ''Podocarpus'': I. The sections of the genus and their subdivisons with special reference to leaf anatomy". Journal of the Arnold Arboretum.
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