Araucaria, a living fossil.
Araucarias are without doubt among the oldest trees, they were already present in the Jurassic, so they were contemporaries of the dinosaurs! Composed of 19 species, most of the Araucarias are endemic to New Zealand, they have so much to tell us…
What is the lifespan of an Araucaria tree ?
Not only did Araucaria trees already exist in the Jurassic period, but they are also among the longest-living trees.
Indeed, these funny conifers can live certainly more than 1000 years, we even speak about specimens reaching 2000 years…
Double venerable therefore, our Araucarias!
What are the particularities of Araucarias?
Their gigantism
In order to be close to the dinosaurs, it was necessary to get some height!
Some Araucarias can reach 100 meters high, a particularly remarkable performance when you know that they grow extremely slowly…
But it is true that nothing hurries them, with their 1000 to 2000 years of life expectancy!
Their geometric shape
Araucarias are remarkable for their perfect geometry, the architecture of their branches being rigorously symmetrical.
Their branches are arranged in tiers, they create regular crowns, which are evenly distributed around the trunk.
This gives them their particular shape, which can be noticed from afar!
- An archaic way of growing
The Araucaria has principles from which it does not depart! Its trunk must grow perfectly vertically, it does not suffer any branching!
This is an ancient way of growing, which we no longer encounter in the “recent” plant kingdom.
A strange foliage
Araucarias like their peace and quiet and hate being tickled! They have developed a very dissuasive foliage: scales, rigid triangular leaves or sharp needles, they all have the particularity to hurt if approached in the opposite direction of their implantation.
Legend has it that the Araucaria araucana has been nicknamed “Despair of the Monkeys”, because monkeys would be unable to climb this tree, which makes the Chileans, from whom this Araucaria originates, smile because… there are no monkeys in the forests of Chile!
Still, it is perhaps their not very attractive scales that saved them from the herbivorous dinosaurs!
Araucaria stories
Their size, their geometrical shape, their funny spines give a very particular look to our Araucarias, which stand stoically, often conscientiously squeezed against each other. They have often surprised and given rise to a fertile imagination and many interpretations.
Some explorers, like James Cook discovering an island off the coast of New Caledonia covered with Araucarias columnaris, took them for stone statues; others took them for an army, others for a herd of animals huddling together to fight against the snow and the storm…
In South America, Araucarias are reputed to reproduce underground, their roots mixing together out of sight. Each tree would be the incarnation of a spirit, hence a fierce struggle to save them from extinction which they are threatened because of deforestation. This is notably the case of the superb Parana Pine or Araucaria angustifolia.
So let’s take care of our venerable ancestors!
