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Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) O. Kuntze

Common Name: Paranza Pine, Brazilian Pine

Family: Araucariaceae Henkel & Hochst.

Country of Origin: Brazil (south)

Habitat: 500-1800 m elevation in subtropical forests

Description: Tree, usually 25-35 m tall, with a straight trunk and horizontal branches, becoming flat-topped with age. Bark finely scaly, resinous, striated horizontally. Branchlets arranged in whorls of 4-8. Leaves sharply acute, needle-like, lanceolate, midrib visible, usually in pairs, dark green or glaucous, thick, 30-60 mm long by 6 mm wide, stomata above, keeled below, tending to be tufted at outer ends of branches. Leaves on fertile branchlets densely disposed spirally, much shorter, denser, with prominent stomata below. Male cone dense, shortly extending beyond the axil of the leaves, 10-18 cm long by 1.2-2.5 cm wide, scales imbricate. Female cone globular, 18-25 cm long by 13 cm wide, chestnut-brown, maturing in 2-3 years, wet weight ca. 1 kg, scales with a long recurved bract or umbo. Seeds light brown, 50 mm long by 8-20 mm wide, with narrow wings. Germination hypogeal. Cotyledons 2
Uses: Native Americans used to gather the cones and harvest the seeds for food. They would shoot the seeds down using blunted arrows, and bake the seeds before eating.