''Microcachrys tetragona'', known as creeping pine or creeping strawberry pine, is a

species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

conifer Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

belonging to the podocarp

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

(

Podocarpaceae Podocarpaceae is a large family of mainly southern hemisphere conifers, known in English as podocarps, comprising about 156 species of evergreen trees and shrubs.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Portland, Oregon: Timber Pres ...

).Christopher N. Page. 1990. "Podocarpaceae" pages 332-346. In: Klaus Kubitzki (general editor); Karl U. Kramer and Peter S. Green (volume editors) ''The Families and Genera of Vascular Plants'' volume I. Springer-Verlag: Berlin;Heidelberg, Germany. It is the sole species of the

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

''Microcachrys''.James E. Eckenwalder. 2009. ''Conifers of the World''. Timber Press: Portland, OR, USA. . The plant is endemic to western

Tasmania Tasmania (; palawa kani: ''Lutruwita'') is an island States and territories of Australia, state of Australia. It is located to the south of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland, and is separated from it by the Bass Strait. The sta ...

, where it is a low

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

growing to 1 m tall at high altitudes. Its

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

are scale-like, arranged (unusually for the Podocarpaceae) in

opposite In lexical semantics, opposites are words lying in an inherently incompatible binary relationship. For example, something that is ''even'' entails that it is not ''odd''. It is referred to as a 'binary' relationship because there are two members i ...

decussate Decussation is used in biological contexts to describe a crossing (due to the shape of the Roman numeral for ten, an uppercase 'X' (), ). In Latin anatomical terms, the form is used, e.g. . Similarly, the anatomical term chiasma is named aft ...

pairs, superficially resembling those of the unrelated '' Diselma archeri'' (

Cupressaceae Cupressaceae or the cypress family is a family of conifers. The family includes 27–30 genera (17 monotypic), which include the junipers and redwoods, with about 130–140 species in total. They are monoecious, subdioecious or (rarely) dioecio ...

). It shares the

common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often con ...

Creeping pine with several other plants. Females produce tiny, red, edible berries in summer. Microcachrys tetragona coniferous heath

Fossil record and paleoendemism

''Microcachrys'' has been called one of the most spectacular cases of paleoendemism. It is a known relictual plant, being widespread in the past but now having a very restricted distribution. The only extant species today, ''Microcachrys tetragona'', produces a very distinctive pollen grain compared with other members of its family,

, and records of fossil pollen from the genus have been recorded from all over the Southern Hemisphere throughout the

Cenozoic The Cenozoic Era ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterized by the dominance of mammals, insects, birds and angiosperms (flowering plants). It is the latest of three g ...

, being found in Antarctica, Australia, the now sunken islands of the Ninetyeast Ridge of the Indian Ocean, New Zealand, southern Africa and South America. Ocean drillings in the

Kerguelen Plateau The Kerguelen Plateau (, ), also known as the Kerguelen–Heard Plateau, is an oceanic plateau and large igneous province (LIP) located on the Antarctic Plate, in the southern Indian Ocean. It is about to the southwest of Australia and is near ...

near

Heard Island The Territory of Heard Island and McDonald Islands (HIMI) is an Australian external territory comprising a volcanic group of mostly barren Antarctic islands, about two-thirds of the way from Madagascar to Antarctica. The group's overall land ...

have revealed conifer remains with twigs very similar in appearance to those of ''Microcachrys.'' The genus ''Microcachrys'' clearly had a very broad, Gondwanic distribution. But now, the sole surviving species, ''Microcachrys tetragona'', is a shrub restricted to Tasmanian mountain thickets and boulder-fields.Carpenter, Raymond J., et al. "Leaf fossils of the ancient Tasmanian relict Microcachrys (Podocarpaceae) from New Zealand." American Journal of Botany 98.7 (2011): 1164-1172 The fossil record of ''Microcachrys'' is one of many compelling lines of evidence which points to the highly dynamic and changing Southern Hemisphere vegetation through the Cenozoic since the break up of Gondwana.

References

External links

Microcachrys
At

At
The Gymnosperm Database
{{Taxonbar, from1=Q14947387, from2=Q136688 Dioecious plants Endemic flora of Tasmania Monotypic conifer genera Podocarpaceae genera Podocarpaceae