Araucaria columnaris

Araucaria columnaris, the coral reef araucaria, Cook pine (or Cook's pine), New Caledonia pine, Cook araucaria, or columnar araucaria, is a species of conifer in the family Araucariaceae.

Araucaria columnaris
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
(unranked): Gymnosperms
Division: Pinophyta
Class: Pinopsida
Order: Pinales
Family: Araucariaceae
Genus: Araucaria
Section: A. sect. Eutacta
Species:
A. columnaris
Binomial name
Araucaria columnaris
Synonyms[2]
  • Araucaria cookii R.Br. ex Endl.
  • Araucaria excelsa (Lamb.) R.Br.
  • Araucaria intermedia R.Br. ex Vieill.
  • Columbea excelsa (Lamb.) Spreng.
  • Cupressus columnaris J.R.Forst.
  • Dombeya excelsa Lamb.
  • Eutacta cookii Carrière
  • Eutacta excelsa (Lamb.) Link
  • Eutacta humilis Carrière
  • Eutacta minor Carrière
  • Eutassa columnaris (G.Forst.) de Laub.

Distribution

The tree is endemic to New Caledonia in the Melanesia region of the Pacific.

It was first classified by Johann Reinhold Forster, a botanist on the second voyage of Captain James Cook to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible.

Description

Araucaria columnaris is a distinctive narrowly conical tree growing up to 60 m (200 ft) tall in its native habit. The trees have a slender, spire-like crown.[3] The shape of young trees strongly resembles A. heterophylla. The bark of the Cook pine peels off in thin paper-like sheets or strips and is rough, grey, and resinous.[3]

The relatively short, mostly horizontal branches are in whorls around the slender, upright to slightly leaning trunk. The branches are lined with cord-like, horizontal branchlets. The branchlets are covered with small, green, incurved, point-tipped, spirally arranged, overlapping leaves. The young leaves are needle-like, while the broader adult leaves are triangular and scale-like.[3]

The female seed cones are scaly, egg-shaped, and 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long by 7–11 cm (3–4 in) wide. The smaller, more numerous male pollen cones are at the tips of the branchlets and are scaly, foxtail-shaped, and 5 cm (2 inches) long.[3]

A 2017 study found that trees tend to have a uniform tilt dependent on the hemisphere of their location, leaning on average 8 degrees south in the northern hemisphere and the same angle north in the southern hemisphere.[4]

Ornamental tree

It is cultivated in gardens and public landscapes in Queensland and Victoria of Australia, northern New Zealand, Southern California, Puerto Rico, Mexico, India, Philippines and Hawaii.[3]

  • Male cones
  • Foliage

References
  1. Thomas, P. (2010). "Araucaria columnaris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2010: e.T42196A10661112. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-2.RLTS.T42196A10661112.en. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
  2. "Araucaria columnaris (G.Forst.) Hook.". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 13 December 2017 – via The Plant List.
  3. "Araucaria columnaris". The Gymnosperm Database.
  4. Johns, J. W.; Yost, J. M.; Nicolle, D.; Igic, B.; Ritter, M. K. (2017). "Worldwide hemisphere-dependent lean in Cook pines". Ecology. 98 (9): 2482–2484. doi:10.1002/ecy.1850. PMID 28556968.
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