Araucaria columnaris

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Regnum: Plantae
Divisio: Tracheophyta
Divisio: Pinophyta
Classis: Pinopsida
Ordo: Pinales

Familia: Araucariaceae
Genus: Araucaria
Sectio: A. sect. Eutacta
Species: Araucaria columnaris
Name

Araucaria columnaris (G.Forst.) Hook. , Bot. Mag. 78: t. 4635 (1852)
Synonymy

Basionym
Cupressus columnaris G.Forst., Fl. Ins. Austr.: 67, (1786)

Homonyms

Eutassa columnaris (G.Forst.) de Laub., Araucariaceae: 42 (2009)
Heterotypic
Dombeya excelsa Lamb., Descr. Pinus: 87 (1806)
Araucaria excelsa (Lamb.) R.Br. in W.T.Aiton, Hortus Kew. 5: 412 (1813)
Columbea excelsa (Lamb.) Spreng., Syst. Veg. 4(2.): 215 (1827)
Eutacta excelsa (Lamb.) Link, Linnaea 15: 544 (1842)
Araucaria cookii R.Br. ex Endl., Syn. Conif.: 188 (1847), nom. superfl.
Araucaria intermedia R.Br. ex Vieill., Ann. Sci. Nat., Bot., sér. 4, 16: 54 (1862)
Eutacta cookii Carrière, Traité Gén. Conif., ed. 2: 612 (1867), nom. superfl.
Eutacta humilis Carrière, Traité Gén. Conif., ed. 2: 616 (1867)
Eutacta minor Carrière, Traité Gén. Conif., ed. 2: 614 (1867)
Araucaria neocaledonica Linden ex Regel, Gartenflora 24: 176 (1875)
Araucaria lavoixii Silba, J. Int. Conifer Preserv. Soc. 21: 5 (2014)

Distribution
Native distribution areas:

Continental: Pacific
New Caledonia

References: Brummitt, R.K. 2001. TDWG – World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, 2nd Edition
References

Hooker, W.J. 1852. Botanical Magazine ser.3, 78: t.4635, text
Govaerts, R. et al. 2017. Araucaria columnaris in World Checklist of Selected Plant Families. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published online. Accessed: 2017 Feb. 10. Reference page.
International Plant Names Index. 2017. Araucaria columnaris. Published online. Accessed: Feb. 10 2017.
USDA, ARS, Germplasm Resources Information Network. Araucaria columnaris in the Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN), U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service.

Vernacular names
العربية: أروكاريا عمودية
English: Cook Island Pine
فارسی: کاج کوک
français: Araucaria colonnaire
lietuvių: Išlakioji araukarija
norsk: Cookfuru
Tiếng Việt: Bách tán nam
中文: 柱状南洋杉

Araucaria columnaris, the coral reef araucaria, Cook pine (or Cook's pine), New Caledonia pine, Cook araucaria, or columnar araucaria, is a species of conifer in the family Araucariaceae.

Distribution

The tree is endemic to New Caledonia in the Melanesia region of the Pacific.

It was first classified by Johann Reinhold Forster, a botanist on the second voyage of Captain James Cook to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible. It is named directly for Cook, and not for the Cook Islands.
Description

Araucaria columnaris is a distinctive narrowly conical tree growing up to 60 m (200 ft) tall in its native habit. The trees have a slender, spire-like crown.[3] The shape of young trees strongly resembles A. heterophylla. The bark of the Cook pine peels off in thin paper-like sheets or strips and is rough, grey, and resinous.[3]

The relatively short, mostly horizontal branches are in whorls around the slender, upright to slightly leaning trunk. The branches are lined with cord-like, horizontal branchlets. The branchlets are covered with small, green, incurved, point-tipped, spirally arranged, overlapping leaves. The young leaves are needle-like, while the broader adult leaves are triangular and scale-like.[3]

The female seed cones are scaly, egg-shaped, and 10–15 cm (4–6 in) long by 7–11 cm (3–4 in) wide. The smaller, more numerous male pollen cones are at the tips of the branchlets and are scaly, foxtail-shaped, and 5 cm (2 inches) long.[3]

A 2017 study found that trees tend to have a tilt dependent on the hemisphere of their location, growing upright on the Equator but leaning south in the northern hemisphere and north in the southern hemisphere.[4]
Ornamental tree

It is cultivated in gardens and public landscapes in Queensland and Victoria of Australia, northern New Zealand, Southern California, Puerto Rico, Mexico, India, Philippines and Hawaii.[3]

References

Thomas, P. (2010). "Araucaria columnaris". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2010: e.T42196A10661112. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2010-2.RLTS.T42196A10661112.en. Retrieved 14 November 2021.
"Araucaria columnaris (G.Forst.) Hook.". World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (WCSP). Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Retrieved 13 December 2017 – via The Plant List.
"Araucaria columnaris". The Gymnosperm Database.
Johns, J. W.; Yost, J. M.; Nicolle, D.; Igic, B.; Ritter, M. K. (2017). "Worldwide hemisphere-dependent lean in Cook pines". Ecology. 98 (9): 2482–2484. doi:10.1002/ecy.1850. PMID 28556968.