A Puzzling Fence
HFF! This impressive Monkey Puzzle tree is located in the grounds of the James O'Keeffe Institute in Newmarket, Co. Cork. The middle branches are covered in lichen.
From the interweb: "Before the name 'monkey puzzle' caught on, this tree was often called the Chilean pine. However, is not a pine at all, coming from a different family. It is an evergreen conifer, and the indigenous people of Arauco, Chile eat its tasty seeds.
In the wild, monkey puzzles are found in Chile and Argentina, 600 to 1,800 metres above sea level in moist areas rich with volcanic ash. Here they can live to be around 150 years old.
Originally discovered by Spanish explorer Don Francisco Dendariarena in the 1600s, monkey puzzle was for a while the most valuable timber in the southern Andes, used for railway sleepers, pit props, ship masts and paper pulp. Today it is a protected icon of the Global Trees Campaign and these uses have largely ended.
Its toasted seeds are still eaten by people living near monkey puzzle forests and its productivity (once it begins producing seed at around 30 to 40 years old) gives it commercial crop potential. Chile declared the monkey puzzle tree a national monument in 1990.
A Puzzling Fence
HFF! This impressive Monkey Puzzle tree is located in the grounds of the James O'Keeffe Institute in Newmarket, Co. Cork. The middle branches are covered in lichen.
From the interweb: "Before the name 'monkey puzzle' caught on, this tree was often called the Chilean pine. However, is not a pine at all, coming from a different family. It is an evergreen conifer, and the indigenous people of Arauco, Chile eat its tasty seeds.
In the wild, monkey puzzles are found in Chile and Argentina, 600 to 1,800 metres above sea level in moist areas rich with volcanic ash. Here they can live to be around 150 years old.
Originally discovered by Spanish explorer Don Francisco Dendariarena in the 1600s, monkey puzzle was for a while the most valuable timber in the southern Andes, used for railway sleepers, pit props, ship masts and paper pulp. Today it is a protected icon of the Global Trees Campaign and these uses have largely ended.
Its toasted seeds are still eaten by people living near monkey puzzle forests and its productivity (once it begins producing seed at around 30 to 40 years old) gives it commercial crop potential. Chile declared the monkey puzzle tree a national monument in 1990.