Greek mikros - small. cachrys - catkin; referring to the small male cones.

A small, densely-branched, prostrate or straggling shrub to 1 m tall. Leaves 1-2 mm long, scale-like, ridged and blunt, dark green, pressed to the stem, in opposite pairs arranged at right angles to each other and producing branchlets that are square in section. Plants unisexual. Male cones terminal, extremely small, hardly wider than stems. Female cones terminal, solitary, stalkless; scales up to 24, appearing to be in fours. Seeds 1 per scale, embedded in the ellipsoidal, fleshy, scarlet fruit which is c. 6-7 mm long, Jan.-Feb.

1 species from mountain areas of Tasmania.

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.