A narrow shrub or small tree to 6 m tall. Bark dark, smooth. Foliage green or waxy blue. Branches upright, drooping at the tips and with very thin branchlets. Leaves 2-4 mm long, ridged on the back. Female cones in clusters, spherical, wrinkled when dry, brown, drying to almost black, c.1.5-2.5 cm wide, persistent; scales thick, broadest in upper half, alternately large and small, each extended into a conical projection.

Grows naturally on hillsides in and beside creek beds, often on sandy soils in open forest and near-coastal sands. Naturalised on the North Island, New Zealand (Auckland).

WA, SA, Qld, NSW.

Smooth bark; thin branchlets; cones in persistent clusters, wrinkled when dry.

NSW: Sydney (Royal Bot. Gds); Mt Tomah (Bot. Gds); Jervis Bay (Bot. Gds). ACT: Australian National Bot. Gds. VIC: Geelong (Bot. Gds); Maroondah (Dam); Melbourne (Royal Bot. Gds and annexe at Cranbourne).

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Cupressaceae. In: Spencer, R.. Horticultural Flora of South-eastern Australia. Volume 1, Ferns, conifers & their allies. The identification of garden and cultivated plants. University of New South Wales Press.