Araucaria bidwillii bunya bunya

Bunya bunya at Kingscote Gardens. Sairus Patel, 14 Sep 2017

The domed crowns of this prehistoric-looking Queensland conifer rise majestically above the flowering trees of its native rainforest – companions that include king palm and Moreton Bay fig, both of which may be seen in the environs of Stanford.

Branchlets gather in pendulous clusters at the ends of whorled branches. In maturity, the lower branches droop, sometimes entirely obscuring the trunk, or fall off. The sharp leathery leaves, arranged in spirals, vary gradually in length along each branchlet, producing an effect of intersecting sine waves. Hefty green cones – the size of your head and fiercely armed with prickles – fall intact and are quickly ravaged by squirrels; within are edible seeds, the so-called bunya nuts, some two inches long.

Fallen female cones of bunya bunya at Kingscote Gardens. Sairus Patel, 14 Sep 2017

Bunya bunya was being grown in the Stanford nursery in 1889. Our two oldest surviving specimens, planted in 1898, stand in Dohrmann Grove (formerly part of “Encina Gardens”) along Jane Stanford Way. Another, planted in 1908, is east of the Mausoleum near the pathway. In 1913, a notably larger tree than these three was growing at the Stanford Residence, since lost. A skyline tree at the Meyer-Buck House, likely dating from the original garden of around 1920, comes into view from Junipero Serra Boulevard as it approaches Alpine Road; a former resident provost reported that a pesto made with its nuts did not sit entirely well. The tree produces seedlings, one of which has been transplanted to Lou Henry Hoover House.

A specimen at Kingscote Gardens – likely planted with the house in 1917 – holds pride of place at the end of the main lawn. All of Stanford’s mature bunya bunyas have coned, though bumper crops are produced only every few years. In the autumn of 2017, just after Kingscote reopened following an extensive renovation, eight or so cones from its tree appeared scattered here and there; no earlier crop seems to have been recorded. Some were split apart with the seeds gouged out, a squirrel looking guiltily on from the burl at the base of the elephantine trunk. Others, green and whole, had rolled down to the main driveway, where they were being merrily kicked around by passing students. Kingscote had an extraordinary crop in 2024: 26 cones fell, and at least two more were visible high in the crown by mid-September.

Bunya bunya leaves at Kingscote Gardens. John Rawlings, 2003

Beyond campus, a pair of bunya bunyas stands at 811 Hamilton Avenue in Palo Alto, with another pair in the median of Trinity Drive near Whitney in Menlo Park. Three grow beside the water tower at Holbrook-Palmer Park in Atherton. Two more are on the west side of El Camino Real in Redwood City, just north of James Avenue – look for their ferris wheel–like crowns from the upper deck of a train at the Redwood City station. Beyond these local sightings, bunya bunya–spotting becomes an enjoyable pastime on drives through central and southern California, where the tree is planted more frequently.

Name derivation: Araucaria – see A. araucana entry; bidwillii – J. C. Bidwill (1815–1853), Australian plant collector.