50. Monkey Puzzle

Tree Tour

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Go down the lawn now towards Savery Hall, and between a weigela shrub and another English maple is a Monkey Puzzle. This is surely among the most memorable of all our trees. It is common in the maritime Northwest but rare or nonexistent in the rest of the U.S. Newcomers visiting here always express amazement at its dark, fiendishly snaking branches and prehistoric looking trunk. Actually it's a native of Chile and Argentina, being the only commonly cultivated South American conifer hereabouts. In nature, the nuts borne by female trees provide a valuable resource, as does the wood. The specimen you see is a single female, so although it makes the large cones, the nuts within are mostly or wholly hollow. A pollinator male (with cucumber shaped, dangling cones) is necessary.

Pictured below: Map of geographical range of Monkey Puzzle Tree.

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