Characteristics:
Common name: Monkey puzzle tree
Family: Araucariaceae
Origin: Chile
Mature height: 15 meters
Hardiness: -20 ° C
Exposure: sunny
Plant type: conifer
Vegetation: perennial
Foliage: persistent
Flowering: summer
Flower color:
Soil type: deep, ordinary
Watering: normal without excess
Use: isolated in the garden, in pots the first years
Diseases and pests: not determined
Toxicity: not determined
Seed conservation: 2 years in a dry place protected from light at 3/4 ° C (refrigerator)
Description:
Species protected by the Washington Convention, this conifer with its unique silhouette offers a conical shape that becomes broad and rounded with age.
The branches, well branched, are distributed around the trunk in stages and are furnished with numerous leaves in scales, leathery and very pointed. The young branches are quite erect but, as they lengthen, with the weight of the branches, they arch towards the ground. Very old species, it is sometimes described as a living fossil, the prickly side of its leaves could have protected it from dinosaurs.
Araucaria is dioecious, so it is necessary to have a male plant and a female plant for fruiting to take place and therefore seeds to appear. The male cones are elongated, grouped by three, four or five at the ends of the branches. The female cones are isolated or grouped in pairs and can reach the size of a melon and each female cone is composed of + – 700 scales.
All this gives Araucaria Araucana a very original habit and makes it a magnificent tree to isolate on a lawn. Pot culture is possible.
