#2758 - Araucaria araucana - Monkey-Puzzle
Clearly a cultivated specimen, but that profile is unmistakable.
First described as Pinus araucana by Jesuit priest, linguist, and naturalist (and early evolutionary theorist) Juan Ignacio Molina in 1782. In 1797, Spanish botanist José Antonio Pavón Jiménez named it Araucaria imbricata - illegitimate, as it didn't use Molina's older araucana. Eventually, in 1873, after several further redescriptions, German botanist Karl Koch published the combination Araucaria araucana, which seems to have stuck. The binomial is derived from the local Araucanians who collected the nuts.
A living fossil from the Central-southern slopes of the Andes, and like the Sequoia an endangered species. Logging, forest fires, and grazing are the biggest threats.
Trees can be over 40m in height, and live for over 1300 years. The triangular, scale-like leaves themselves have an average age of 24 years.
In its home range the long-haired grass mouse Abrothrix longipilis is the main seed disperser, burying seeds whole in locations favorable for germination.
The oldest fossil records of Araucariaceae are from the Early Jurassic, if not earlier. Early representatives of Araucaria were widespread across both hemispheres by the Middle Jurassic.
A popular ornamental conifer everywhere the climate suits it and it has room to grow - Cornwall has a excellent genetic diversity of the plant thanks to the number of seedlings and seeds sent home by miners after the Cornish diaspora.
Dunedin, Aotearoa New Zealand
