The Araucaria are a family of conifers. They're primarily found in the southern hemisphere, particularly in South America, Australia, New Zealand, and the nearby island country of New Caledonia. These are my favorite trees, because they look so convincingly *prehistoric*. Here's the New Caledonian forest: ![[Araucaria_humboldtensis_growing_in_altitude_shrubland%2C_on_the_slopes_of_Mont_Humboldt%2C_New_Caledonia.jpg]] (photo from [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Caledonian_Araucaria)) The trees with the inverted triangle tops are *Araucaria humboldtensis*. Each time I see one of these trees I vividly imagine their ancestors standing proudly over the dinosaurs. In fact, the family is *relict*, meaning that it used to contain more diversity in the past; Araucaria are on their way out, evolutionarily speaking. Most of the twenty odd species that remain today are endangered due to logging, and on New Caledonia, nickel mining. Not-so-fun fact: New Caledonia contains the greatest diversity of Araucaria, and a staggering 10% of the world's nickel, an incredible amount for an island that is only around seven thousand square miles (for comparison, LA county is four thousand square miles). While their relatives on the mainland were outcompeted and disappeared, the trees on this island flourished and diversified, but time has, sadly, caught up with them. Here's the South American *Araucaria araucana*, commonly known as the monkey puzzle tree. The name "monkey puzzle" originates from the fact that a monkey would have some trouble climbing this tree; the trunk and branches are studded with rigid triangular scale-like leaves. The tree is strikingly symmetrical when young. ![[Pasted image 20230731135137.jpg]] The leaves are the most obvious difference between the Araucaria from South America and those from the Pacific islands. Compare the leaves of the Norfolk Island Pine below; awl-shaped, small, and flexible. ![[Pasted image 20230731135745.jpg]] There's even a tree with an intermediate kind of leaf that makes the relationship more evident: *Araucaria laubenfelsii*, from New Caledonia, below. This specimen is in the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena. ![[Pasted image 20230731140136.jpg]]