Santalaceae FAMILY

Exocarpos cupressiformis

Edibility

2/5

Medicinal

1/5

Safety & Hazards

One report says that the foliage might be poisonous^[1].

Cultivation Details

HabitEvergreen Shrub

Growth—

Exocarpos cupressiformis is native from the temperate forests of Tasmania to the subtropical regions of southeastern Queensland. A major difficulty if trying to cultivate this species is that, although it photosynthesizes much of its own nutrients, it is also semi-parasitic on the roots of other plants, notably Eucalyptus species. Seeds germinate fairly easily, and cuttings will usually root successfully, but the seedlings and cuttings usually die unless they have root access to a host plant. Exocarpos species generally cause very little harm to the host plant.

Propagation

Propagation and establishment of species in this genus is difficult due to the semi-parasitic nature of the plant. Some success has being achieved in propagation from both seed and cuttings, but the plants generally do not survive once planted out^[2]. Sowing the seed in situ near where potential host plants are growing, and protecting the seed with an upturned glass or plastic container would be worth a try. Alternatively, try sowing the seed in a pot where a small potential host is growing - the main disadvantage to this is that the two plants will be in very close proximity and the Exocarpos could be outcompeted. Cite as: Temperate Plants Database, Ken Fern. temperate.theferns.info. 2026-02-21. <temperate.theferns.info/plant/Exocarpos+cupressiformis>

Pollinators

Data unavailable

References

[1]Flora of Victoria. — Ewart. A. J. · University Press; Melbourne · 1930 ↩︎A flora of eastern Australia, it is rather short on information that is useful to the plant project.
[2]Australian Native Plants Society — http://anpsa.org.au/index.html ↩︎A series of fact sheets on Australian plants. Good photographs, brief description and information on uses, habitat, range, cultivation etc.
[3]Flora of Australia — http://www.anbg.gov.au/abrs/abif/flora/ ↩︎The full information from the Flora of Australia - on-line. An excellent resource.
[4]Flora of New South Wales — http://plantnet.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/floraonline.htm ↩︎An on-line resource giving a brief botanical description of all the native plants of New South Wales, their habitat and range, together with diagrams and photographs of the plants.
[5]The Useful Native Plants of Australia. — Maiden J.H. · Turner & Co.; London. · 1889 · http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org ↩︎Terse details of the uses of many Australian plants and other species naturalised, or at least growing, in Australia. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
[6]Flora of Tasmania Online — Duretto MF (Ed.) · Tasmanian Herbarium, Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery: Hobart · 2009 · http://www.tmag.tas.gov.au/floratasmania ↩︎An excellent flora, in the process of being published (58 family treatments as of 2017). It can be accesed online and can also be downloaded as PDFs.
[7]Sturtevant's Edible Plants of the World. — Hedrick. U. P. · Dover Publications · 1972 · ISBN 0-486-20459-6 ↩︎Lots of entries, quite a lot of information in most entries and references.
[8]Wild Food in Australia. — Cribb. A. B. and J. W. · Fontana · 1976 · ISBN 0-00-634436-4 ↩︎A very good pocket guide.
[9]Wild Food Plants of Australia. — Low. T. · Angus and Robertson. · 1989 · ISBN 0-207-14383-8 ↩︎Well presented, clear information and good photographs. An interesting read for the casual reader as well as the enthusiast
[10]An Ethnopharmacological Study of Medicinal Plants of the Kamilaroi and Muruwari Aboriginal Communities in Northern N — Qian Liu · 2006 ↩︎In particular it looks at Ethnopharacological information on the genera Eremurus and Exocarpus. It can be downloaded from the Internet.
[11]Dictionary of Economic Plants. — Uphof. J. C. Th. · Weinheim · 1959 · ISBN - ↩︎An excellent and very comprehensive guide but it only gives very short descriptions of the uses without any details of how to utilize the plants. Not for the casual reader.