Chilean araucaria

Chilean araucaria is a coniferous tree. Araucaria Chilean in height can reach 60 meters, and the diameter of the trunk is 1.5 meters. The birthplace of this tree is Chile and Argentina. It is distributed in Western Europe as an ornamental tree.

Chilean araucaria has a wide-pyramidal crown, and its lower branches are located directly on the ground. Side branches in mature trees are 6 or 7 in whorls, branches are horizontally arranged, but in old trees they hang a little. The crown is flat-umbrella-shaped, located only at the top of the trunk.

The branches of araucaria are covered with leathery and thorny leaves. The leaves of the Chilean araucaria are thorny, rigid, spirally arranged, dark green, they cover the branches rather tightly to each other. The bark is thick, resinous, longitudinally fissured. Mature cones are brown, spherical in shape. Their diameter is about 12-18 centimeters. They are initially covered with elongated, long tips of covering scales, which break off after a while. After ripening, the cone crumbles. Mature trees have about 20-30 cones, each cone contains up to 300 large seeds.

Chilean araucaria loves light, it grows well in humid climates, on non-swampy, evenly moist and nutrient-rich soils. Chilean araucaria tolerates dry conditions in summer and light frosts in winter.

Chilean araucaria is propagated by seeds or cuttings. Chilean araucaria is used as an ornamental plant. It is present in many parks and botanical gardens.