Tree of the Week: The monkey puzzle tree

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The monkey puzzle tree -- Araucaria araucana

Depending on your point of view, the national tree of Chile has a distinctive open symmetrical silhouette or it is a bizarre pyramidal evergreen with snaking branches and sharp-pointed, stiff leaves. Found in Chile in the 1780s, this native of Chile and Argentina, inhabiting the lower slopes of the South Central Andes Mountains, was named for the local Araucana people. Since there are no monkeys in its native range, the common name is only theoretical.

The tree is sometimes planted as a novelty in a large landscape area, but its habit of dropping 10-to-15-pound cones makes it inadvisable to linger nearby. The monkey puzzle tree may live to a ripe old age, reputedly up to 1,000 years old, but conversion of habitat is threatening its existence in parts of its original range.

Slow-growing in youth, the monkey puzzle tree eventually reaches 70 to 90 feet tall and 30-feet wide. The gray-barked trunk is straight; heavy branches droop down, but sweep upward at the end. Shiny and sharp leaves are less than 2 inches long and may last for 10 years. Male and female cones, produced when the tree is 30 to 40 years old, usually are borne on separate trees. Seed production in the 6-to-12-inches long, 3-to-6-inches-wide female cones is heavy and the seeds are edible.

The tree prefers regular water but is somewhat drought-resistant. It likes full sun and tolerates almost any well-drained soil. It will take frost and snow, needs little or no pruning and is little affected by pests or diseases.

Usually an oddity, the tree does occur in the Los Angeles area but the accompanying picture was taken on a recent trip in the Netherlands. The owners of this particular tree may not have realized its ultimate size or fruit disposal technique.

--Peter Severynen

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