In search of monkey puzzles

A. araucana, Spanaway, WA.

It's National Tree Week and earlier in the week I posted something on Araucaria araucana, the Monkey Puzzle Tree and asked for readers to let me know of any interesting examples in their area.

The thing about the Monkey Puzzle is that it is so unique and unmistakable for any other tree species that it tends to stick out in peoples' mind where they see one. As one writer put it: because of their uniqueness, they seem more common than they actually are.

They are also enough of a botanical curiosity that they are often an indication of some historic botanical connection that can be unearthed. They make for some good stories!

Melanie Brisbane was in touch from Spanaway in Washington State in the US to send a photo of her A. araucana covered in snow. The tree is quite cold-tolerant, although the roots can be damaged by severe and extended cold snaps.

Mary Higgins from Waterford mentioned the Monkey Puzzle at Doneraile Park in North Cork. The gardens at Doneraile Court and the plant collecting activities of Mary St. Leger are worthy of a post of their own. The tree is apparently still there but I don't have an image to hand. A trip North is on the cards, I think!
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Update 12/03/2012: Having travelled to Doneraile this weekend in search of A. araucana, I can safely say that if there was one in the park, it's gone now! More details in due course.
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TriploidTree commented on the specimen tree located at Tramore Road in Cork City (between Musgraves and CMP). CMP is gone from that location but at least one Monkey Puzzle is still present on the site.

Monkey Puzzle at Tramore Road, Cork

The size of the tree indicates that it has been located on the site for much longer than the current occupiers. A quick check of some old maps confirms the site was a plant nursery in the middle of the 19th Century and the tree was positioned at the entrance to the establishment. Surely a great way to impress prospective customers, by exhibiting one of the botanical curiosities of the age at the front gate.

c.1840 map of the Tramore Road Nursery site showing approximate position of the Monkey Puzzle tree (red dot)

OpenPlaques brought my attention to a tree at the bottom of Malone Road in Belfast which must surely be associated with the nearby Botanical Gardens? A quick search hasn't shown up anything there at the moment. Can any Belfast readers shed some light on the matter?
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Update 12/03/2012: Prof. John Pilcher from Queens University, Belfast contacted me recently to tell me that, as far as he knew, there was no Monkey Puzzle in the Gardens now. "Some of the old Belfast postcards seem to show one near the Malone road gate (near the Kelvin statue)" says John. "There are some specimens of [the related species] Araucaria heterophylla, one in the Tropical ravine and I think two in the Palm House".
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Finally, one other specimen of note is the fine example to be found at what is now Mahon Point in Cork City. This tree is all that remains of the once impressive Lakelands Demesne built by none other than William Crawford. As we've already learned, he was a keen plantsman and developed spectacular gardens on the site now occupied by suburban housing, a shopping centre and a dual carriageway. Sic transit gloria mundi.

I'll write more on Lakelands and Crawford's botanical exploits at a later date, but for National Tree Week it's good to know that this unique tree can act as a reminder of Crawford's Lakeland gardens.

A. araucana at Mahon Point, Cork

A Puzzling Tree

Monkey Puzzle at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford

The Monkey Puzzle Tree (Araucaria araucana) is a familiar yet exotic sight in many large gardens and parks across Ireland and Britain.

Native to South America,it's the national tree of Chile where it is commonly known as Pehuén.

Despite some commentators despising the things (even going so far as to encourage owners to chop them down!), I quite like them.They've got a bizarre, reptilian quality about them which makes them, at the very least, impossible to mistake for any other species.

It's an evergreen, growing relatively slowly and reaching more than 40 metres in places at maturity. The tree can reach a spectacular age - up to 1,300 years old.

The flowers are dioecious, which means they are either male or female. If you want to produce viable seed to propagate the tree, you'll need two trees - one male and one female. The seeds themselves are pretty large and apparently tasty enough to eat.

The leaves are thick, scale-like and triangular with sharp edges. The leaves are so sharp that there has been calls to remove a number of the trees where they are grown close to schools. Madness of course!

There is some concern for the tree in its native South America where logging, human-set fires and land clearance since Europeans arrived have reduced its range. Its tasty seed and sought after timber means it is at a real risk of being over-collected.

Monkey Puzzle at Johnstown Castle, Co. Wexford

The tree first reached Britain in 1795, when Archibald Menzies, a botanist and surgeon with the British Navy brought five saplings home. Menzies had been served the seeds as a desert at a dinner party hosted by the governer of Chile. Sir Joseph Banks at Kew planted two of the saplings in his own garden and three at Kew.

The common name of the plant apparently derives from the 1850's when the proud owner of an early British example of the tree was showing off his prized possession when one of them remarked: "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that". The name has stuck.

There are plenty of Monkey Puzzle trees dotted around the country. Where's your favourite? Send locations (and pics!) and I'll post the best. You can email communicatescience1@gmail.com

This post is part of a series to mark National Tree Week 2012.

National Tree Week 2012

This Sunday sees the start of National Tree Week in Ireland - a week-long series of events celebrating the impact of trees on our lives and on our environment.

>> Here at Communicate Science, we'll have a series of tree-themed posts to mark the occasion. Stay tuned! <<

National Tree Week runs from 4th-10th March and the theme for 2012 is 'Trees- Our Past, Our Present, Our Future'.

National Tree Week will kick off this Sunday with a series of events in Ardee, Co. Louth at which President Michael D. Higgins  will participate in a tree planting ceremony at 12 noon.

There are loads of events throughout the country - check out the website for full details.

Highlights include:

Clare - A guided tree walk in the Burren where there is famously "not enough wood to hang a man".

Cork - A guided walk at the Gearagh Nature Reserve near Macroom - the finest surviving example of ancient, post-glacial wooded floodplain on the River Lee.

Cork - A guided tour of the spectacular Fota Arboretum by Head Gardener David O'Regan.

Dublin - 'In Celebration of Trees' - An exhibition of Bonsai at the National Botanic Gardens.

Dublin - The inaugural National Tree Week lecture takes place at the National Botanic Gardens. "The Once and Future Forest" will be delivered by Dr. John Feehan.

Wexford - A forest walk at JFK Arboretum featuring a description of forest species, forest management, timber uses, wildlife and a demonstration of how to plant and fell trees.

Full details of times, dates, cost (where applicable), etc. can be found on the NTW website.