Podocarpus lawrencei 'Blue Gem' is a spreading, female clone of mountain plum-pine, with dense, high, ground-covering structure, and laterally spreading branching with nodding branch tips. Foliage is blue-green in color, but creamy with a purple tinge during its spring foliage push. After 10 years of growth, a mature specimen will measure 4 feet (1.3 m) tall, with up to a 10 foot (3 m) spread, an increase from the terminal branches of 1 foot (30 cm) or more. This conifer is easily controlled through rigorous shearing and removing of the terminal "whip branches'' on a regular basis.
This cultivar originated as a seedling selected in the early 1980s by Jos Kolster Van Klaveren Plant Breeding, Dodges Ferry, Tasmania, Australia.
