Mountain Plum Pine. When I first saw this plant growing in Seattle, WA, my first thoughts were that a New Zealand native like this would never grow in the heat of the Deep South. Man was I ever wrong. It has not only grown, but it has thrived. Those of us in the South would not connect this as being a Podocarpus since we have grown up with Podocarpus macrophyllus, so different with its long strap-like leaves and upright growth habit. This plant more closely resembles a dwarf prostrate Cephalotaxus or a spreading Taxus. Its needles are only about 1/2 to 3/4" long. In the wild in New Zealand, some plants have been found to be over 450 years old. When Carl Shoenfeld of Yucca Do Nursery near Houston, TX was visiting with me a few years ago, I commented on how this plant had surprised me on how well it had performed. He replied that this was one of the most satisfactory plants in his garden near Houston. If you want a dwarf, spreading shrub for sun to shade, then this is a good choice with its spreading/mounding fine foliage. The species is dioecious, meaning separate male and female plants, but since I have never seen this selection flower, I don't know what its sex is. If plants of both sexes are present, the female produces an attractive red fruit.
Zones 7b-10
