#8 Araucaria araucana Common Names: monkey-puzzle tree, Chilean pine Family: Araucariaceae (araucaria Family) Get link to this Profile or click for Datasheet

This young monkey puzzle tree lives in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. The Bay area's moist cool summer environment is perfect for monkey puzzles.

Several selections have been named, including some that are dwarf, some with yellowish foliage, and some with fewer branches and a more open habit.

Location
Monkey puzzle tree grows on volcanic slopes in the Andes Mountains in Chile and Argentina. There are 18 species of Araucaria, and 16 of them are confined to Australia, New Caledonia and other remote islands in the South Pacific. Paranza pine (A. angustifolia) is the only other New World member of the genus.

Although beautiful, the sharpely pointed leaves of the monkey puzzle can inflict painful injury on unprotected flesh.

Usage
Monkey puzzle tree, with its distinctive silhouette, is an elegant specimen for large landscapes, parks and avenues. It is very tolerant of winds and salt spray, and a group would make an excellent windbreak for a coastal landscape.

Features
Monkey puzzle tree is dioecious (has separate male and female trees), and the female trees get much larger, up to 100 ft (30.5 m) tall in their native habitat, whereas the male trees seldom exceed 50 ft (15 m) in height. The seeds (piñones) are edible.

Steve Christman 3/6/00; updated 10/22/04

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