Two forms of woody cones act as the gametophyte structures, which mature approximately six months after pollination and are typically retained on the tree for up to one year.

Its distribution is primarily in the central and western mountain areas between 700 and 1300 m above sea level, often around tarns or damp depressions on peaty or wet rocky soils.

[10] These environments are typically composed of a canopy containing A. cupressoides, and A. selaginoides (King Billy pine), an understory containing Nothofagus cunninghamii (myrtle beech) and Phyllocladus aspleniifolius (celery-top pine), a shrub layer containing Olearia pinifolius (prickly daisybush) and Richea species, and a ground covering of Astelia alpina (pineapple grass), Empodisma minus (spreading rope rush) and Gleichenia alpina (alpine coral fern).

[12] Major fires at the Walls of Jerusalem National Park and the Central Plateau Conservation Area during the summer of 1960–1961, and again in 2016, severely affected and reduced the population.

[13] The species' poor adaption to fire and the added stress of regeneration being hampered by grazing animals makes recovery from these incidents difficult.

Animals such as sheep, rabbits and native marsupials, have been observed to eat the seedlings, suckers and adult foliage leaving significant impact on the plants.

[4] Loss of A. cupressoides populations is largely irreversible given the relatively high fuel loads of postfire vegetation communities that are dominated by resprouting shrubs.