Afrocarpus falcatus

Afrocarpus falcatus

Afrocarpus falcatus, commonly known as the Sickle-leaved Yellowwood and False Yellowwood Afrocarpus falcatus, commonly known as the Sickle-leaved Yellowwood and False Yellowwood Afrocarpus falcatus, commonly known as the Sickle-leaved Yellowwood and False Yellowwood (formerly also Outeniqua...

(Musengera or Zigba (Amharic ዝግባ); syn. Podocarpus gracilior) is an evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

 coniferous tree native to the Afromontane

Afromontane

Afromontane is a term used to describe the Afrotropic subregion and its plant and animal species common to the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula...

 forests of Ethiopia

Ethiopia

Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

, Tanzania

Tanzania

The United Republic of Tanzania is a country in East Africa bordered by Kenya and Uganda to the north, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the west, and Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique to the south. The country's eastern borders lie on the Indian Ocean.Tanzania is a state...

, and Uganda

Uganda

Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...

, growing at 1,800-2,400 m altitude.

It is a medium-sized tree, growing 20-40 m tall, rarely to 50 m, with a trunk diameter of 50-80 cm. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are spirally arranged, lanceolate, 2-6 cm long and 3-5 mm broad on mature trees, larger, to 10 cm (4 in) long and 6 mm broad on vigorous young trees. The seed cones

Conifer cone

A cone is an organ on plants in the division Pinophyta that contains the reproductive structures. The familiar woody cone is the female cone, which produces seeds. The male cones, which produce pollen, are usually herbaceous and much less conspicuous even at full maturity...

 are highly modified, with a single 2 cm (0.78740157480315 in) diameter seed with a thin fleshy coating borne on a short peduncle. The mature seed is purple, and is dispersed by bird

Bird

Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from...

s and monkey

Monkey

A monkey is a primate, either an Old World monkey or a New World monkey. There are about 260 known living species of monkey. Many are arboreal, although there are species that live primarily on the ground, such as baboons. Monkeys are generally considered to be intelligent. Unlike apes, monkeys...

s which eat the fleshy coating. The pollen

Pollen

Pollen is a fine to coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which produce the male gametes . Pollen grains have a hard coat that protects the sperm cells during the process of their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from the male cone to the...

 cones are solitary or in clusters of two or three on a short stem.

Cultivation and uses

It is an important timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

tree in eastern Africa, used for building construction, paneling, flooring and furniture.

In horticulture, where it is sometimes known by the confusing name "fern pine", it is grown as a tree, hedge, screen, or espalier in subtropical regions.