Araucaria araucana monkey puzzle

Monkey puzzle tree in the Chile-themed garden on Campus Drive, in front of the ChEM-H and Neurosciences complex. Sairus Patel, 1 Feb 2021

Monkey puzzle tree in front of the Mausoleum. John Rawlings, ca. 2005

A tree of spectacularly bizarre aspect, with stiff branches set in geometric tiers, forming in youth a cage-like crown, and ultimately maturing into a broad parasol held aloft by a clean bole. Fiercely armed, leathery leaves densely clothe the branches and even sheath the trunk, persisting long after death – making it, as the old remark goes, a puzzle indeed for any monkey attempting ascent.

The genus and species name derive from the indigenous peoples of south-central Chile historically called Araucanos, among them the Pehuenche – whose name in turn derives from pehuen (or pewen), the monkey puzzle. Its nutritious seeds have long been harvested by these peoples.

Monkey puzzles have been planted in the Arizona Garden and in front of the Mausoleum since at least the early 1900s. The last pair was removed in 2021 – one female, with round seed cones the size of tennis balls, the other male, with elongated pollen cones. Fortuitously, that same year a larger specimen was planted in the Chile-themed garden along Campus Drive, in front of the new ChEM-H and Neurosciences complex. This is now the only monkey puzzle on campus.

The species is surprisingly rare in the immediate region, though several grand specimens may be found in San Francisco (see The Trees of Golden Gate Park and San Francisco, E. McClintock, 2001). It is perhaps the most strikingly exotic tree to thrive in cool temperate climates, flourishing in the Pacific Northwest better than anywhere else in North America; imposing specimens are not an uncommon sight even in small and otherwise scrappy front yards in southwestern Ireland.

Its sister species in Brazil and Argentina, A. angustifolia (“narrow-leaved”), is dispersed in part by tapirs, the largest surviving megafauna on the continent. All other members of the genus are from Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and Norfolk Islands – a bifurcated distribution that reflects ancient continental splits. Indeed, fossils of the family are well represented in North America, including spectacular logs at Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, attesting to a lineage once far more widespread.