Podocarpus ridleyi

(Wassch.) N.E.Gray (1958)

Common names

No data as of 2026-01-23.

Taxonomic notes

Syn.: Podocarpus neriifolius D.Don var. ridleyi Wassch. (Farjon 1998).

Description

"Tree 4-24 m tall, 20-30 cm diam. Foliage buds 4-8 mm long. Juvenile leaves linear-lanceolate, 11-20 by 1.1-1.6 cm, narrowly acute. Adult leaves linear-lanceolate to lanceolate, 5-12 cm by 7-14 mm, acute, narrowed at the base more or less to a 2-3 mm petiole, slightly revolute, with a continuous upper hypoderm, sometimes with five vascular resin canals; midrib above a low ridge 0.2-0.5 mm wide and 0.l-0.2 mm high. Buds for pollen cones sessile or on a 1 mm peduncle. Pollen cones 1.5-2 cm by 2 mm, clustered to at least four; apex of the microsporophyll a tiny triangular spur 0.1 mm long. Seed-bearing structure on a 3-12 mm peduncle; receptacle 8-9 mm long, known to turn pink. Seed with its covering 7 by at least 4 mm" (de Laubenfels 1988).

Distribution and Ecology

Malaysia: Malay Peninsula. "Localized and more or less dominant on several isolated peaks with poor soils in a somewhat stunted rain-forest, 480-1300 m. On ridge in Panti For. Res. over standstone, on Mt Ophir on granite" (de Laubenfels 1988).

Remarkable Specimens

No data as of 2026-01-23.

Ethnobotany

No data as of 2026-01-23.

Observations

No data as of 2026-01-23.

Remarks

The epithet honors Henry Nicholas Ridley (1855-1956), Director of the Singapore Botanic Gardens from 1888 to 1911. During his career he did much to found the Malayan rubber industry, but after retirement in 1911 Ridley went on to describe many new plants, among them the conifers Agathis flavescens and Podocarpus deflexus, and to write a flora of the Malay Peninsula (Ridley 1925).

Citations

Gray, Netta E. 1958. A Taxonomic Revision of Podocarpus, XI. The South Pacific Species of Section Podocarpus, Subsection B. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 39:474. Available: Biodiversity Heritage Library, accessed 2023.01.08.

See also

The species account at Threatened Conifers of the World.

Gaussen (1976), p. 159.

Keng. 1972. In Whitmore, Tree Fl. Mal. 1:49, f. 3.

Wasscher. 1941. Blumea 4:453.