[2] Phyllocladus hypophyllus grows in tropical evergreen hill, montane, and subalpine rainforests from (310) 600 to 3,400 (4,000) meters elevation.

At lower elevations it grows as a large canopy tree, in mixed broadleaf-conifer forests with species of Podocarpaceae, Fagaceae, and Lauraceae, and in kerangas forests on white sandstone-derived and nutrient-poor sand with other conifers including Agathis.

In New Guinea it often grows in montane forests dominated by the broadleaf tree Nothofagus grandis with P. hypophyllus and other podocarps mixed in.

In high-elevation subalpine forests it grows in shrubby or dwarfed form, often at the edges of boggy grasslands, especially in New Guinea, and on rocky ridges.

It grows on diverse substrates, including granite, sandstone, peaty soils, ultramafic soils derived from serpentinite and similar rocks, volcanic deposits, and eroded limestone.