The genus name has Greek roots and means fruits with feet in relation to the striking fleshy stems bearing the fruit in many species. The podocarpus belongs to a genus of coniferous widely spread in temperate zones of the southern hemisphere of the globe, from Tasmania and New Zealand, through Africa to the most Antarctic latitudes of Chile. The wide distribution of this species has led to the suggestion that the podocarpus already existed about 200 million years ago in Gondwana, a primitive supercontinent that was part of the Pangea and when divided originated the continents where today the podocarpus grows approximately, including India where there is now a region with the same name Gondwana in memory of the great original extension. In this sense, the Alcázar gardens are seen as a landscape laboratory where over the years have come and have adapted species from distant places, a process that has transformed it into a kind of vegetable ark, a true index planetaire, as stated by the landscaper and gardener Gilles Clément.