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NZ Plants


Non-flowering seed plants: the gymnosperms

Conifers: phylum Coniferophyta

gymno_tree(400)
Illustration: Vivian Ward

 

 

Gymnosperms native to New Zealand

There are four phyla (divisions) of gymnosperms living today: Ginkgophyta, Gnetophyta, Cycadophyta and Coniferophyta.

Only the Coniferophyta (conifers) have species that are native to New Zealand and all of these are endemic (found nowhere else).

 

The Conifers Today

Conifer Groups

Common name

Family name

Total number of species

Species native to
New Zealand

Found in Northern (N) or Southern (S) Hemisphere

Kauri family

Araucariaceae

40

1

S

cypress & redwood family

Cupressaceae

132

2

S (some N)

celery pine family Phyllocladaceae 5 3 S
podocarp family Podocarpaceae
169
14
S (some N)
pine family
Pinaceae
191
0
N
  Cephalotaxaceae 3
0
N
yew family
Taxaceae
16
0
N

Early Gymnosperms

evo_gymno(600)

The seed plants were present in the Late Devonian Period about 360 million years ago.
They gave rise to several different lines of gymnosperms which became common in the Mesozoic landscape for at least 180 million years

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