A photograph from Eric in San Francisco today, taken in the San Francisco Botanical Garden at Strybing Arboretum (Eric in SF@Flickr | BPotD Flickr Group Pool | original image). I very much appreciate all the photographs of plants I can't find locally - thanks Eric!

The pollen-bearing (male) cones, or microstrobili, of all conifers are very similar in appearance. The female cones (megastrobili) differ morphologically from group to group and can be diagnostic, i.e., they can be used to help identify a conifer while the microstrobili cannot. For a summary of the variability in megastrobili, see conifer cones via Wikipedia.

Podocarpus matudae (no common name that I can find) is native to Mexico, Guatemala and possibly El Salvador (Podocarpus matudae via the Gymnosperm Database). While previously divided into as many as four botanical varieties, the conifer taxonomist Dr. Aljos Farjon, author of the “World Checklist and Bibliography of Conifers”, recognizes only the species.

Photography resource links: Two resources today on the same topic – Digital SLR Infrared by Michael Reichmann of The Luminous Landscape and Digital Infrared Choices by David Burren (if you visit David's site, be sure to browse through either the galleries or the “featured images” pages). When I purchase a new camera, I think I'll convert my current one to IR.