Prumnopitys ferruginea (Miro) 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

Pinophyta

The conifers, division Pinophyta, also known as division Coniferophyta or Coniferae, are one of 13 or 14 division level taxa within the Kingdom Plantae. Pinophytes are gymnosperms. They are cone-bearing seed plants with vascular tissue; all extant conifers are woody plants, the great majority being...

 tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 which is endemic

Endemic (ecology)

Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...

 to New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. Before the genus Prumnopitys

Prumnopitys

Prumnopitys is a genus of conifers belonging to the podocarp family Podocarpaceae. The eight recognised species of Prumnopitys are densely-branched, dioecious evergreen trees up to 40 metres in height. The leaves are similar to those of the yew, strap-shaped, 1-4 cm long and 2-3 mm broad, with a...

was distinguished, it was treated in the related genus Podocarpus

Podocarpus

Podocarpus is a genus of conifers, the most numerous and widely distributed of the podocarp family Podocarpaceae. The 105 species of Podocarpus are evergreen shrubs or trees from 1-25 m in height...

as Podocarpus ferrugineus.

It grows up to 25 m high, with a trunk up to 1.3 m diameter. 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 linear to sickle-shaped, 15-25 mm long and 2-3 mm broad, with downcurved margins. The plants are dioecious

Plant sexuality

Plant sexuality covers the wide variety of sexual reproduction systems found across the plant kingdom. This article describes morphological aspects of sexual reproduction of plants....

 with pollen cones being solitary while those of female plants hang from a curved, scaly stalk. 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, reduced to a central stem 2-3 cm long bearing 1-3 scales, each scale maturing berry-like, oval, about 20 mm long and 10-15 mm broad, red to purple-red with a soft edible pulp covering the single seed

Seed

A seed is a small embryonic plant enclosed in a covering called the seed coat, usually with some stored food. It is the product of the ripened ovule of gymnosperm and angiosperm plants which occurs after fertilization and some growth within the mother plant...

. The seeds are dispersed by the Kererū

Kereru

The New Zealand Pigeon or kererū is a bird endemic to New Zealand. Māori call it Kererū in most of the country but kūkupa and kūkū in some parts of the North Island, particularly in Northland...

 (New Zealand Pigeon), which eats the very conspicuous 'berries' and passes the seeds in its droppings. It is found growing on both lowland terrain and on hill slopes throughout the two main islands as well as on Stewart Island/Rakiura

Stewart Island/Rakiura

Stewart Island/Rakiura is the third-largest island of New Zealand. It lies south of the South Island, across Foveaux Strait. Its permanent population is slightly over 400 people, most of whom live in the settlement of Oban.- History and naming :...

 (47° S).

The scientific name ferruginea derives from the rusty colour of dried herbarium

Herbarium

In botany, a herbarium – sometimes known by the Anglicized term herbar – is a collection of preserved plant specimens. These specimens may be whole plants or plant parts: these will usually be in a dried form, mounted on a sheet, but depending upon the material may also be kept in...

 specimens of the leaves.

Distinguishing Miro from Matai

Miro is distinguished from the related, and (initially) very similar looking Matai

Prumnopitys taxifolia

Prumnopitys taxifolia is an endemic New Zealand coniferous tree that grows on the North Island and South Island. It also occurs on Stewart Island/Rakiura but is uncommon there....

(Prumnopitys taxifolia) in four aspects of its anatomy; its cones, bark, seeds and leaves.

• Miro trees have longer, broader leaves with green undersides while those of Matai leaves are white. In addition, the leaves of Miro generally narrow to a point, whereas those of Matai are rounded, sometimes with a small point right at the very tip.
• Miro trees have cones of some hue of red in colour while those of Matai are blue-black.
• Miro also have relatively longer cones which are oval and red in colour.
• Like Matai, the bark of more mature Miro trees flakes off to leave a distinctive "hammer mark pattern", but unlike Matai, the pattern is not as pronounced nor as colourful (areas from which bark flakes have recently fallen in Matai often have a striking red colour that fades over time back to brown).