Latin afra - african, carpus - fruit.

Tall evergreen trees. Leaves spirally arranged or in pairs at right angles to one-another. Plants unisexual. Male cones solitary or in short-stalked clusters. Female cones solitary, terminal on a short axillary branchlet without a receptacle but with basal scales. A genus of six African species formerly in Podocarpus but now considered sufficiently different to warrant generic status: distinguished by the absence of a fleshy receptacle together with a differing leaf anatomy and chromosome number; probably a relict and primitive genus of Gondwanan origin.

6 species distributed discontinuously from equatorial Africa south to the Cape.

Gray (1953), Page (1988).

Source: Spencer, R. (1995). Podocarpaceae. 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.