Podocarpus salignus [Monte Oscaro - 2500']

One of a number of exquisite and rare conifers from southern Chile, this upright, forest dweller with weeping branches and gracefully hanging foliage looks for all the world like the bamboo you always wanted. Particularly beguiling as it grows in several places with the Chilean native, Chusquea culeou, a combination we observed during our first collections in Chile some years ago. Nothofagus and luma are other associates in this moist cool maritime environment. Unlike some other rarities, it has become quite at home in cultivation, adding a graceful subtropical effect in our courtyard and having remained undamaged in temperatures in the low teens F in several gardens. A plant for reasonably moist soil and average fertility, bright light to dappled shade (weeps a bit more in dappled shade). Eventually to 25-30', more reasonably to 15' °F in the garden. Cold hardy in USDA zone 8.