How about this for Monkey Puzzle tree..

[skelding]

My parents have this tree growing in their garden, its rather large but a stunner..



I wonder how old it is, must have been in the ground for over 100 years...

[stephenprudence]

That is impressive, there's also one near here which I grabbed off Google, I wonder how old specimens this size are?

[kata]

Excellent specimen skelding!

Trees are important to our survial..the lungs of the earth.

[metalhammer]

You should see the ones at Benmore Garden in Scotland,they have branches that droop down to & lay on the ground.





metalhammer.

[Conifers]

Or Kyloe Woods in Northumbs, where they are seeding themselves around . . .

[Dave Brown]

Large garden as well Neal

They tend to drop their branches here as it is too dry. There is a large one at Shorne (Next village along) it is about 60 feet tall but only has branches the top 15 feet or so.

This one is at my Daughter's Uni (Royal Holloway) It's the building used in the Trinity series.

[metalhammer]

I didn't realise that they actually produced viable seed here.

I think the near the west coast where it's cool & wet they grow particularly luxuriant.



metalhammer.

[stephenprudence]

Monkey Puzzle was once a native tree, I'm sure they would self seed here but there are hardly any MP's around here.

[Conifers]

Native in Chile and westernmost Argentina (and still is!); it's never been native in Britain

Yeah, if you have several trees together to give reliable pollination, they produce plenty of seeds!

[Dave Brown]

Conifers, there is a small MP about 1/2 a mile away, about 15 feet tall that has had those seed cones for the last 2 or 3 years. It was a beautiful tree, unsusually with branches to the ground, but is in a small front garden and the owners have now cut most of the branches off on the road side. This make the tree totally lop sided IMO.

I am surprised that a such small tree has the cones, but they are very unlikely to be pollenated as the nearest other tree that I know of is about 3 miles away.

[stephenprudence]

Native in Chile and westernmost Argentina (and still is!); it's never been native in Britain

Yeah, if you have several trees together to give reliable pollination, they produce plenty of seeds!

Apparently that's not entirely true, there are (pre-ice age) pollen records that prove that the tree was once native to the UK - apparently.

[Conifers]

I am surprised that a such small tree has the cones, but they are very unlikely to be pollenated as the nearest other tree that I know of is about 3 miles away.

Worth sifting through for the odd viable seed - the pollen can blow a long way. Viable seeds are very easy to tell, as they're plump and heavy compared to 'empties', not squashable the way 'empties' are.

Apparently that's not entirely true, there are (pre-ice age) pollen records that prove that the tree was once native to the UK - apparently.

There's records of ancient (Jurassic / Cretaceous) Araucariaceae fossils - trees related to distant ancestors of Araucaria - but not of the modern species. The family became extinct in the Northern Hemisphere at the K/T boundary (with relatively recent recolonisation by Agathis spp. to 18°N in the Philippines).

[dk]

They are quite common on the southwest coast of Norway too, and large ones are known produce viable seeds and self sows around the mother tree.

Certainly beautiful trees but perhaps not as exotic as palms

[metalhammer]

There is a small plantation of them somewhere either in Ireland or the west of Scotland.Can't remember where I saw it,but will have to try & look it out.

I understood you only found members of the Araucaraceae in Southern America,Australia & New Caledonia.I have no doubt there present in New Guinea,but there is such a treasure trove of new plants to be found there,if we can get there before the loggers & miners trash the place.






metalhammer.

[Conifers]

There's a small plot in Kilmun Forest Plots near Dunoon, Argyll. Much younger trees than the ones at Kyloe in my pics.

I understood you only found members of the Araucaraceae in Southern America,Australia & New Caledonia.I have no doubt there present in New Guinea

That applies to the genus Araucaria (including New Guinea); Agathis (the other main genus in the family) also in New Zealand (N Island), Fiji, Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, Malaya, Philippines (but not S America).