Scientific name: Araucaria angustifolia (A. Bertoloni) O. Kuntze 1898

Synonyms: Araucaria angustifolia var. alba Reitz, Araucaria angustifolia var. caiova Reitz, Araucaria angustifolia var. caiuva Mattos, Araucaria angustifolia var. dependens Mattos, Araucaria angustifolia var. indehiscens Mattos, Araucaria angustifolia var. monoica Reitz, Araucaria angustifolia var. nigra Reitz, Araucaria angustifolia var. sancti-josephi Reitz, Araucaria angustifolia var. semialba Reitz, Araucaria angustifolia var. stricta Reitz, Araucaria angustifolia var. vinacea Mattos, Araucaria brasiliana A.Rich., Araucaria brasiliana var. gracilis Carrière, Araucaria brasiliana var. ridolfiana (Pi.Savi) Gordon, Araucaria brasiliana var. saviana (Parl.) Parl., Araucaria brasiliensis A. Rich., Araucaria brasiliensis Loudon, Araucaria brasiliensis var. saviana (Parl.) Parl., Araucaria dioica (Vell.) Stellfeld, Araucaria elegans Carrière, Araucaria ridolfiana Pi.Savi, Araucaria saviana Parl., Columbea angustifolia Bertol., Columbea brasiliana (A.Rich.) Carrière, Columbea brasiliana var. elegans Carrière, Columbea brasiliana var. ridolfiana (Pi.Savi) Carrière, Columbea brasiliensis var. ridolfina (Pi. Savi) Carrière, Pinus dioica Vell.

Common names: Parana pine, Paraná-pine, Candelabra tree (English), Curii, Pinheiro das Missoes, Pinheiro do Paraná, Pinheiro-da-ponta-br Anca, Pinheiro-elegante, Pinheiro-preto, Pinho Brasileiro (Portuguese), Pino misionero (Spanish)

Description

Tree to 35(-50) m tall, with trunk to 1.5(-2) m in diameter, clear of branches for most of its height at maturity or with a few, scattered, shorter replacement branches below. Bark reddish brown to grayish brown, remaining thin and smooth, with horizontally expanded leaf attachment scars and shallow, irregular, discontinuous, vertical furrows with ragged edges. Crown passing from conical through deeply to shallowly dome-shaped and ultimately to tabletop flat, like an umbrella, with a few tiers of four to eight closely spaced, thin, horizontal branches turning up abruptly near the ends and bearing large, ball-like tufts of branchlets. Branchlets green for the first year or two, turning tan, smooth and clearly visible between the leaves. Leaves densely spirally arranged, standing nearly straight out or angled a little forward along the twigs, sword- to spearhead-shaped, flat or a little bowed outward around the midline. Each needle 1.7-4.5(-6) cm long, 5-8 mm wide, green or blue-green, wider and shorter on branches with seed cones. Stomates mostly parallel to the long axis of the leaf, in closely spaced, discontinuous lines on both faces. Pollen cones (7-)10-20 cm long, 1.5-2.5(-3) cm thick, each pollen scale with about 10 pollen sacs in two rows. Seed cones nearly spherical to broadly egg-shaped, often wider than high, 10-16 cm in diameter, green or brown at maturity externally, revealing a bright red interior upon shattering, with a brown, club-shaped remnant cone axis. Seed scales 7.5-9 cm long, 2.5-4 cm wide, conspicuously potbellied around the embedded seed, abruptly contracted beyond it just beneath the outside face, with a slender, down-curved free tip 6-8(-10) mm long. Seeds light brown, about 5 cm long, 2 cm wide. Cotyledons remaining underground with the seed coat at germination.

Southern Brazil and northeastern Argentina. Forming dense to open pure stands or mixed with evergreen hardwoods in wet to seasonally dry uplands; 500-2,000 m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Critically Endangered

This species was formerly evaluated as Vulnerable A1d, B1+B2b under the 1994 IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria (Farjon and Page 1999) but published data cited in Enright and Hill (1995) indicate that a reduction of 97% has taken place due to logging since the beginning of the 20th century. It is estimated that in about 1900 AD this species had an extent of occurrence of ca. 20 million ha; analysing this area using LANDSAT-II imagery, Gantzel (1982) showed that only 565,419 ha remained by 1982. Logging at that time was still continuing at an estimated rate of 80,000 ha per year. This amounts to a forest reduction of over 97% within three tree generations. Plantation forestry with Pinus and Eucalyptus as well as conversion of forest for other uses have the habitat loss irreversible. Consequently an assessment of Critically Endangered under the A2 criterion is warranted.

The original extent of Araucaria forest, estimated at 200,000 km², is believed to have declined by more than 97% in the last century. In Rio Grande do Sul, for instance, the forest area, over half of which was made up of Araucaria, has plummeted from 40% land cover to 3% today. Araucaria forest in Sâo Paulo covers 4.3% of its original area. The Paraguay population is small and confined to Alto Paraná. Seeding trees are scarce. Small relict populations, covering less than 1,000 ha, in northeast Misiones, Argentina, are all that remain of the forest that in 1960 covered 210,000 ha. The species is included on the official list compiled by IBAMA of threatened Brazilian plants

Grows in subtropical forest on acidic soils. Araucaria is usually dioecious, rarely monoecious and like other conifers is wind pollinated. Pollen maturation and pollination in Brazil occur from August through October. The seed cones begin to mature two years after pollination, and the complete cycle from primitive carpel to seed takes about four years. Young trees begin to set seed between 12 and 15 years of age. Seeds are dispersed between May and August.

Parana pine is the most important timber species in Brazil. In addition to the massive exploitation for timber, 3,400 tons per annum of fruit and seeds are collected for human consumption. Fragmentation, forest clearance for planting other agricultural crops (wheat, soya and corn) as well as faster growing timber species such as pine and eucalypt are also continuing threats.

Previously heavily exploited for its timber which was widely used for construction. The species is used as a fuelwood. Seeds are used as a food source and resin from the bark is traded subnationally. The tree is also planted as an ornamental.

Since 2001 there has been an official Brazilian ban on log exports of this species. The Brazilian Government is also promoting several initiatives to protect Araucaria genetic resources. Only a small fraction of the former range of this species is protected in reserves and national parks.

References

Farjon, A. (2010). A Handbook of the World's Conifers. Koninklijke Brill, Leiden.
Eckenwalder, J.E. (2009) Conifers of the World: The Complete Reference. Timber Press, Portland.
IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. Cambridge, UK /Gland, Switzerland