ARTIFICIAL KEY TO THE FAMILIES based on vegetative characters

1Leaves spirally attached, sometimes distichous.
1'Leaves decussate, often distichous.
2Leaves (needles) in bundles of 2-3 with a basal sheath (Pinus)
2'Leaves not in bundles with a basal sheath.
3Leaves needle-like or scale-like.
3'Leaves distinctly flattened and often broad.
4Leaves scale-like (Dacrycarpus, Dacrydium)
4'Leaves needle-like, triangular or quadrangular in cross-section.
5Tree with a very dominant primary trunk with regularly placed whorls of lateral branches. Seeds dry, in large bracteate cones (Araucaria cunninghamii)
5'Tree quite irregularly branched. Seeds few, in reduced cones (Dacrycarpus, Dacrydium, Falcatifolium)
6Leaves bifacially flattened, linear, less than 2.5 mm wide, with a basal constriction (Taxus)
6'Leaves if linear either bilaterally flattened, or more than 2.5 mm wide, or without a basal constriction (Dacrycarpus, Falcatifolium, Phyllocladus, Podocarpus, Prumnopitys)
7Leaves scale-like (Libocedrus)
7'Leaves broad and many-veined.
8Leaves sessile, clasping, lanceate from a broad base (Araucaria hunsteinii)
8'Leaves broad, not with a stem-clasping base.
9Terminal bud hemispherical (Agathis)
9'Terminal bud acute (Nageia)