Dacrydium Solander ex G. Forst. (1786) is a genus of around 21 species in the family Podocarpaceae, from eastern Asia and Australasia.

Description Trees to 60m in height, evergreen, with slender, cypress-like shoots, and male and female flowers on separate trees. The leaves are small, scale-like, and overlapping on mature shoots, which usually hang down; juvenile leaves are sparse and linear. The flowers are small, the females on the tips of the shoots, the males, like small catkins, in the axils of upper leaves. Pollination is by wind. The fruits are egg-shaped, around 3mm long, surrounded by a usually fleshy, cup-shaped aril, white in D. bidwillii Hook. fil. ex Kirk., red in D. cupressinum Solander ex G. Forst.. In D. franklinii Hook. fil. the cup is green and not fleshy. Flowers and fruit are rare.

Key Recognition Features The small, scale-like leaves on slender shoots and the small fruit with cup-like aril are typical. Dacrycarpus dacrydioides has similar scale-like leaves.

Evolution and Relationships Dacrydium franklinii, the Huon pine from Tasmania, is sometimes separated in the genus Lagarostrobus Quinn; D. bidwillii from New Zealand is sometimes listed as Halocarpus bidwillii (Hook. fil. ex Kirk.) Quinn. Microcachrys Hook. fil. ex Hook., a dwarf shrub from the mountains of Tasmania, has similar scale-like leaves but tetragonal shoots and has seeds surrounded by a large, scarlet aril to 8mm long.

Ecology and Geography Dacrydium cupressinum and D. franklinii are forest trees, while D. bidwillii is an alpine shrub. The range extends from the Malay peninsula to Borneo, Tasmania and New Zealand.

Comment Dacrydium cupressinum, the rimu or red pine, is an important timber tree in the lowland forests of New Zealand, much used for building, with beautiful reddish wood; D. franklinii and D. bidwillii are sometimes planted as curiosities, especially in southwestern England and Ireland.