Podocarpus dispermus, the broad-leaved brown pine, is a species of conifer in the family Podocarpaceae. It is endemic to Queensland, Australia, where it is restricted to rainforest on and near the Atherton Tableland. It was first described in 1933 and has a conservation status of least concerned.
Description Podocarpus dispermus is a tree reaching in height with thin fibrous bark. Leaf buds are conical and about three times longer than they are wide. The leaves are glossy green, linear, up to wide and long. They have very short petioles and the midrib is prominent on both surfaces.
The cones occur in the – the stemless pollen cones are cylindrical and measure up to long and wide, the seed cones rest on a thick peduncle up to long with a receptacle about long. The receptacle is bright red, large and fleshy at maturity, the mature seeds are about long and diameter.
Distribution and habitat The broad-leaved brown pine inhabits rainforest on various soils, at altitudes from about . It occurs on the Atherton Tableland and the foothills of the adjacent Mount Bartle Frere and Mount Bellenden Ker.
Conservation This species was assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2010 and found to be of least concern. It is also rated as least concern by the Queensland Government under its Nature Conservation Act. In its statement, the IUCN recognises some concerns for the species such as seedling consumption by feral pigs, as well as a restricted geographical range, but states that there is currently no evidence of a decline in the population. , the assessment has been annotated with "needs updating".
Taxonomy Podocarpus dispermus was first described in 1933 by Australian botanist Cyril Tenison White. His description was based on several specimens collected from the Atherton Tableland in 1930, and was published in the book Ligneous plants collected for the Arnold Arboretum in North Queensland by S. F. Kajewski in 1929.
In 1998, Russian botanists Alexey Vladimir Bobrov and Aleksander Pavlovich Melikyan published a paper in which they transferred this species to the combination Margbensonia disperma, however it was not accepted and that name is now treated as a synonym.
Ecology Fruits of this species are known to be eaten by cassowaries and musky rat-kangaroos.
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