The real yellowwood has been declared the national tree of South Africa and is protected there.

[2] The real yellowwood is a large evergreen tree that grows up to 30 meters in height.

Podocarpus latifolius is the preferred phorophyte species of Solenangis conica, an epiphytic orchid.

[3] It is a slow-growing tree but exceptionally long-lived, and is increasingly grown as an ornamental feature in South African gardens.

The western populations, in the highlands of Cameroon and Nigeria and in the Angolan highlands, diverged from the other populations around 300,000 years ago, and the species expanded to its current distribution pattern about 200,000 years ago.