Callitris intratropica.
Division Pinophyta > Order Pinales > Family Cupressaceae.
This is one of the 13 (17) Callitris species native to Australia out of a total of 16 (19) species.
It is a tree up to 30 m high with erect to spreading branches.
Juvenile leaves, in whorls of 4, are needle-like.
Scale-like adult leaves are arranged in whorls of three, alternating to form 6 ranks along the branch.
Their tips are free but most of the leaf is adherent to the stem (decurrent).
Leaves about 2 mm long, dark or grey-green with a rounded outer surface (no ridge or keel).
Male and female cones are on the same tree.
Male cones, 3 mm long, solitary or in small clusters, are on the ends of branches.
The scales or microsporophylls, arranged the same way as the leaves, carry the microsporangia or pollen sacs.
The solitary female cones, 12 to 18 mm across are shaped like a slightly flattened sphere.
They have 6 thin, woody scales in 2 whorls of 3, with those in the outer whorl being smaller.
The scales are formed by the fusion of the bract and seed scale.
The tip of the bract scale remains free as a small spine near the top of the scale.
There are no small extra scales at the base of the cone.
The cone axis is a 3 sided, central column or columella up to 5 mm high.
There are up to 8 erect ovules on each fertile scale and they can take up to 20 months to mature.
When mature the scales separate almost completely from each other.
The numerous brown seeds have unequal wings.
J.F.
