It is a conifer in the podocarp family Podocarpaceae, native to southern South America.

The genus name of Saxegothaea is in honour of Franz August Carl Albert Emanuel von Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1819–1861), who was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861.

[3] It is a slow-growing, long-lived evergreen tree growing to 15–25 m (50–80 ft) tall, with a trunk up to 1 m in diameter.

The leaves are arranged in an irregular spiral; they are lanceolate, 1.5–3 cm long, 2 mm broad, fairly hard with a prickly spine tip, dark green above, and with two glaucous blue-white stomatal bands below.

Saxegothaea is endemic to the Valdivian temperate rain forests of southern Chile and adjacent parts of Argentina, where it is generally found in association with Pilgerodendron uviferum and Fitzroya cupressoides.