Mount Tomah, New South Wales, in my family's garden.Closeup of the pollen cone clusters which terminate the branchlets, expanding from an involucre of bract-leaves. Their structure is unlike that of any conifer I know, though the arrangement is slightly reminiscent of
Cunninghamia, which we have growing nearby. The cladistic study of Gadek & al. (2000) [viewable at
www.amjbot.org/cgi/content/abstract/87/7/1044 ] shows that
Cunninghamia is the most basal branch in the cladogram of Cupressaceae
s. lat., and
Taiwania is the next most basal. They are therefore placed in subfamilies of their own, Cunninghamioideae and Taiwanioideae respectively.The resemblance to
Cryptomeria is apparently superficial. That genus is placed in subfamily Taxodioideae together with
Taxodium and
Glyptostrobus.