Araucaria cunninghamii hoop pine

One of Australia’s tallest conifers, and long valued in plantation forestry there – and in distant sites such as the Himalayan foothills of India. The short, closely set leaves clothing the branchlets recall those of Araucaria heterophylla. In mature trees, however, the branchlets tend to cluster toward the ends of the main branches, rather than being evenly distributed along them, as in that species.

One at the south end of the Arizona Garden is 91 feet tall; planted around 1908, it was noted in 1938 to be in poor condition. It has endured, as has a similar 48-foot specimen about 100 yards south of the Mausoleum entrance, whose upper branches curve into a menorah-like outline, and which has coned abundantly at its very top. A 3-foot youngster, planted in 2003, stands on the Art Gallery’s south side, having persisted in the shade there through construction and landscape renovations.

A former specimen, perhaps 60 feet tall, once stood at Burgess Drive and Laurel Street in Menlo Park, but has since been removed.

Name derivation: Araucaria – Araucani Indians of central Chile; cunninghamii – Allan (1791–1839) and Richard (1793–1835) Cunningham, British brothers, Kew collectors in Australia.