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The Monkey Puzzle Tree
A Monkey Puzzle?
My love affair with trees continues. I could have easily built a tour around the trees we saw in Ireland! My favorite is the Monkey Puzzle Tree, pictured above. It’s latin name, Araucaria araucana, is derived from the city of Arauco in Southern Chile, the area it is indigenous to. This conifer (cone-bearing) lives 100 – 200 years on average and some have been alive over 800 years, reaching heights of over 100 feet. Even the individual leaves can live 15 years.
Monkey puzzle trees have been used by the native people of Chile as a food — they have almond shaped seeds — and for ceremonial purposes. They will tolerate most well-drained soils and a cool, mild and humid climate, exactly what this one is getting in the Connemara area of Ireland. This beauty resides on the grounds of Ballynahinch Castle, in the west.
The leaves of the monkey puzzle tree
On the web:
- Theodore Payne Native Plants, East Valley; Saturday 6⁄28: Classes on native plant design and collecting, processing and saving native plant seed (www.theodorepayne.org)
- Jackalope Pottery, No. Hollywood, continues to offer some intriguing free classes (www.jackalopepotterynh.com)
- Tree of Life, San Juan Capistrano; Saturday 6⁄30: Customer appreciation day, 10% off plants all day + Free lunch! (not a misprint — www.californianativeplants.com)
- City Farmers Nursery, San Diego: sign up for the annual pumpkin/zucchini growing contest…www.cityfarmersnursery.com
We have one of these trees, planted around 1920. We were told that it was called a Monkey Pod or Bunya Bunya Tree. They are not for all gardens. They are very messy and the razor-like leaf edges can be painful if stepped on or handled with bare hands. The cones are over a foot long and weigh more than 20 pounds. The nuts are nearly golf ball sized and covered with the toughest casing I have ever encountered. If you manage to get one open, it tastes like a very starchy pine nut.. Not all produce cones. Our tree seems to produce cones on a 2 year cycle. Warts and all, we love our giant.
I also have a tree like this in my sideyard and you do not want to be standing under it when those cones fall!!!