Podocarpus
Podocarpus macrophyllus
A tough, adaptable evergreen with dark green needle-like leaves, dense to the ground, that makes a fine screen or hedge in sun or shade, wind or salt. Plant it where water never stands.
- Mature size
- 20 × 8 ft
- 6 × 2.4 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 7a–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun to part shade
- Water
- Medium
Podocarpus at its mature size
A mature Podocarpus grows to about 20 ft tall and 8 ft wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, UF/IFAS Extension.
Through the year
What Podocarpus looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Dense dark glossy green strap-shaped leaves.
Growing Podocarpus
- Grows well in
- The Southeast, the Plains and Mountain West, and California.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Privacy screen, hedge, and specimen
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Southern China, Taiwan, and Japan
Spacing for a hedge
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Podocarpus, that’s about 8 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Podocarpus in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.