Plants of South Eastern New South Wales

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Callitris rhomboidea

Common name

Port Jackson pine, Oyster Bay pine

Family

Cupressaceae

Where found

Forest and woodland. Coast and ranges. Eastern part of the tablelands north of the Great Western Highway.

Notes

Tree or shrub to 12 m high, with spreading branches. Bark occasionally becoming rough and fissured on larger trees. Stems rounded triangular, grooved longitudinally, hairless, at first glaucous. Leaves aromatic when rubbed, 0.1–0.7 cm long, in whorls of 3 or 4, at first glaucous, bluish green or green, scale-like, keeled on the back, the bases appressed to the branchlets, giving the stem an angular appearance. Juvenile leaves more or less free from the branches, in whorls of 3-5, needle-like. Male and female cones on the same tree. Male cones at the ends of the branches, about 3 mm long, single or clustered. Female cones usually clustered on short fruiting branches, remaining long after maturity. Mature female cones woody, globular to depressed-globular, 10-25 mm in diameter when open. Cone scales thick, larger alternate scales broader above and abruptly angled into a short wide tip. Alternate scales smaller. Seeds numerous, dark brown; wings 2 or 3, about 1 mm wide.

PlantNET description:  http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/cgi-bin/NSWfl.pl?page=nswfl&lvl=sp&name=Callitris~rhomboidea (accessed 7 January, 2021)