Toatoa grows slowly to two metres at ten years, to a maximum of fifteen metres, and it is a long-lived tree. It is found in the wild up to 1000m in lowland and montane forests from Ahipara, south to the volcanic plateau and not much beyond Ruapehu, although it is successfully cultivated in Christchurch. Great Barrier Island also is a natural home for this species.

This sturdy tree doesn’t have true leaves, but phylloclades instead. These are really flattened photosynthetic extensions of branches or twigs and in juveniles they appear as a blue-green. Mature trees have thick, cuneate, leather-like bronzed foliage with distinctly whorled branches.

Toatoa is often dioecious and flowers from October to December. Male and female flowers can appear on the same tree or on separate ones.  Male inflorescences appear in clusters of 10-15 at the peak of the phylloclades, while female flowers are round like berries and appear low on foliage shoots. There are no blooms per se, but as fruit ripens from January to March, it produces between four and seven black seeds cupped in individual white containers. Seeds are released under pressure rather than dispersed and seedlings will often be found under female flower bearing trees.

Tolerant of relatively infertile soils, Toatoa thrives on exposed ridges, on poor-draining soils and at the edge of swamps and. It prefers free draining, moist, cool soil with cool shaded roots, while the tree itself is exposed to full sun. It is frost-hardy.

Toatoa is an excellent specimen tree because of its relatively slow growth and handsome appearance, but it seems to have missed the limelight when it comes to being counted in garden and landscaped settings.

Phyllocladus toatoa has a close monoecious sister in the graceful small forest tree, Mountain Toatoa (Phyllocladus alpinus). It grows slowly to two metres in ten years up to a maximum of ten metres. It is found in the North and South Islands, mainly in sub-alpine and montane forests up to 1600m, and though not coastal, also in the south at sea level. P. Alpinus prefers shelter.