Canopy of mature A. angustifolia.
Forest of A. angustifolia in southern Brazil [Anamaria F. Stranz].
Managed stand of pinheiros.
Pollen cone from a tree in New Zealand. The size of the pollen cone sets this species apart from all similar species [C.J. Earle, Mar-2003].
Foliage on open-grown ornamental tree, New Zealand [C.J. Earle, Mar-2003].
Bark on ornamental tree, 25 cm diameter, New Zealand [C.J. Earle, Mar-2003].
A seedling in the forest (SEEC 1996).
Seed (above) and pollen (below) cones (SEEC 1996).
Distribution (Kershaw and Wagstaff 2001).
Cone showing ripe nuts.
Baskets of nuts gathered by native people (SEEC 1996).
The blue gralha (Corvidae), state bird of Parana, is famous for his habit of planting pinheiro nuts. This sort of bird-tree symbiosis is common among many true pines (Pinus spp.), but I have not heard of it among other species of Araucaria.
Common Names
Portuguese: Pinheiro-do-Paraná (SEEC 1996); English: Parana pine or candelabra tree.
Taxonomic notes
Syn: Columbea angustifolia Bertol. 1819; A. brasiliana A. Rich 1822 (Farjon 1998).
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 (Silba 1986, SEEC 1996).
Range
Brazil: 500-1800 m elevation in subtropical forests, primarily in the states of Paraná, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande Do Sul, and locally in São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Rio De Janeiro (SEEC 1996); also N Argentina and Paraguay at 500-2300 m (Silba 1986).
Big Tree
It is said to grow to 50 m tall and 100 cm dbh (SEEC 1996), but the only tree I have actual measurement data for is an ornamental in downtown Sabie, South Africa, that is 70 cm dbh and 19.2 m tall (Robert Van Pelt pers. comm., 24-Nov-2003). Also, see the letter in "Remarks" below.
Oldest
Maximum ca. 500 years (SEEC 1996).Dendrochronology
Ethnobotany
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 (SEEC 1996). Similar preparations attended use of bunya pine (A. bidwillii) by Australian Aboriginals. The pinheiro was, however, immediately recognized as a valuable timber tree when Europeans came to Brasil. Forest land grants began in 1511 and by the mid-18th century, the Araucaria forests were fast being cleared to provide timber for shipbuilding, construction and related uses. As in so much of the new world, though, the most destructive and extensive deforestation had to await the development of railroads and, later, large trucks. These enabled logging the bulk of the virgin pinheiro forests from the 1870's to the 1940's (SEEC 1996). Since that time, production has largely shifted to plantation forestry programs, for which purpose the species is planted not only in Brasil, but in subtropical environments across the globe.
Observations
About 400.000 hectares (out of 7,500,000 presettlement hectares) of primitive forests of Araucaria still exist, the largest strongholds being in the region of General Carneiro and Bituruna (SEEC 1996). One good place to see it is Iguaĉu National Park in Brasil.
Remarks
The seed cones, containing on average 120 seeds (pinhões), are eaten by people; by other mammals including agoutis, rats, preás, ouriços, serelepes and monkeys; and by birds including gralhas, maitacas, parrots, and tirivas (SEEC 1996).
On 2005.11.28 I received the following letter from Roberval Lech Guerreiro of Farol, Paraná. I am not sure how to translate Mr. Guerreiro's English to American, so I will quote him directly:
I've found your web site when looking for other forest information ... Of course, my first driving was to Araucaria angustifolia, this beloved and at the same time so devastated tree that is really a part of my life, for which I actually have born in a house made of her timber, and grew up among her presence, eating pinhões every winter, and, somehow, amazed when got some skin cut and realized that my own blood is red, and not green, as those forests of the tales of my grandfather and other elders, those my dreams and those really ones all around my piazices (boyish). Neither green as my flag, and my best hopes and dreams for my descendents over this land, when they come to light. I have on my own, if this may interest you, some more materials that could eventually complement your web site regarding this marvelous tree, which is no longer more than a shadow, from a so close past, that make me ashamed for having in our flag a grimpa of the tree we have so fiercely destructed. One is a picture we took in April of 2002, in Rio Grande do Sul highlands, among Gramado and Nova Friburgo, of a pinho in such a way big, that he escaped of the saws of the lumbers, for having no saw big enough for slicing him. I and two more friend, side by side, with that enormous tree after us. I mean, the tree trunk is really wider than our shoulders. I remember some report of another giant pinho as big than that one, but to find they right now would be a project. Those ancient ones are supposed to be in the National Forest of Irati, in Chapecó, and in probably Francisco Beltrão, as I remember. The report tells about 3 meters of diameter and up to 70 meters high. Wonderfull and old growth trees can be found in city parks of Cascavel and Guarapuava. I can assure you, and, eventually supporting with evidences, when time makes it possible, that the pinho seeds, pinhes, still being a part of our food and even of our economy. It's usually caught from the forest by less favored people, who then come to the roads, selling the pinhões and pinhas to the traveler, as to dealers, who supply the supermarkets at the cities. And what a pleasure to bring down a pinha from a grimpa, fells that pinho smell, which is really different of Pinus elliotii smell, take the pinhes from it, and cooking in salt water, or baking in a sapecada. Sapecada is a traditional way for baking the pinhes using dried grimpas as fuel. My grandfather had this for food, completed with some hunting flesh, when got inside the pinheirais harvesting mate tea, in the 40's. Was a common meal to any settler or tropeiro, those men who used to travel months driving cattle from the southern fields to Sao Paulo. I invite you to the Festa Nacional do Pinhão in Lages, Santa Catarina, every winter. Pinhos can regenerate quite fast, and was quite a discovery for me, when I first realized that after a couple of years when I passing by the same young pinho, he was bigger and taller. It's a tree we can see growing year by year. However, that's two other enemies, he just can't held up. The fertility of the soil, source of wheat, soybean and corn, and almost every kind of our food and exportation commodities desperately need for our economy. Paraná alone is responsible for 25% of the Brazilian grain production, although with only about 2% of the territory. The pinheirais lands are top producers. It seems the pinho need some Al+++ in the soil. They always happen in acid soils, instead of the alkaline. |
Citations
[SEEC] Secretaria de Estado da Cultura. 1996. Pinheiro-do-Paraná. Website at http://www.pr.gov.br/seec/pinheiro/, accessed 29-Apr-2003. Formerly available in English, now Portuguese only.
See Also
Anonymous. [no date]. This Is My Land... URL = http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/Village/4169/workeng1.htm, accessed 13-Feb-2000.
Behling, H. 1997. Late Quaternary vegetation, climate and fire history of the Araucaria forest and campos region from Serra Campos Gerais, Parana State (South Brazil). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 97: 109-121.
Behling, Hermann, Valerio DePatta Pillar, Laszlo Orloci, and Soraia Girardi Bauermann. 2004. Late Quaternary Araucaria forest, grassland (Campos), fire and climate dynamics, studied by high-resolution pollen, charcoal and multivariate analysis of the Cambara do Sul core in southern Brazil. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 203:277-297. Abstract: Late Quaternary vegetation, fire and climate dynamics have been studied based on high-resolution dated pollen and charcoal samples and multivariate data analysis. The samples were taken from a 212-cm-long sediment core of a bog in the Cambara do Sul region on the highlands of northeastern Rio Grande do Sul State, Brazil. The records, including seven AMS radiocarbon dates, span 42,840 14C years, for the first time extending the reconstruction of past environmental changes on the southern Brazilian highlands back to the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and pre-LGM times. The last 1,100 years provide a decadal resolution. Initially the site was a permanent shallow lake which became seasonally dry after 26,900 14C yr BP. Seasonal climate with a long annual dry period prevailed until the late Holocene. The climate was somewhat wetter from 42,840 to 41,470 14C yr BP and from 41,470 to 26,900 14C yr BP than during the LGM and the late-Glacial period. Natural fires were rare, but became very frequent after 7400 cal BP, suggesting human occupation of the southernmost Brazilian highlands since that time. The records suggest that a species-rich Campos (grassland) vegetation existed in the area under a relatively dry and cold climate during glacial times under possibly as low as -10°C. The record also suggests that small populations of Araucaria were probably only present in refugia of deep and protected valleys and/or on wetter coastal slopes. Campos vegetation existed through the early and mid-Holocene until 4,320 cal yr BP, after which Araucaria forest expanded into the network of gallery forests along the streams. By 1,100 cal yr BP the Araucaria forest replaced the Campos vegetation reflecting the onset of the wettest period with no marked annual dry season. The marked expansion of the Araucaria forest coincided with the reduction in fire. Between AD 1520 and 1770 Weinmannia became a common taxa in the Araucaria forest, suggesting a shift to warmer climatic conditions on the highlands. This interval was synchronous with a cool phase within the Little Ice Age known from North Atlantic land records. After about AD 1780 human activities changed the original forest composition, first by introducing cattle into the forest and than by selective logging of Araucaria trees. Multivariate analysis of the pollen data shows compositional changes that follow a trajectory alternating undirectional, random phases and phases with directional, sometimes fast transitions. The results also show that compositional changes in the vegetation are slower during cool periods (LGM compared to pre-LGM) and faster in warm periods (Holocene). [Full text article is online via Google Scholar.]
Bittencourt, J.V.M., A.R. Higa, M.C. Mazza, P.M. Ruas, C.F. Ruas, M. Caccavari, and H. Fassola. 2004. Conservation, management and sustainable use of Araucaria angustifolia genetic resources in Brazil. Pages 133-148 in Barbara Vinceti, Weber Amaral and Brien Meilleur (eds). Challenges in managing forest genetic resources for livelihoods: examples from Argentina and Brazil. International Plant Genetic Resources Institute. 271pp. [Full text article is online via Google Scholar.]
Cardemil, L., E. Salas and M. Godoy. 1984. Comparative study of the karyotypes of South American species of Araucaria. Journal of Heredity 75(2):121-125.
ABSTRACT: Root tips of both Araucaria araucana (Mol.) Koch and Araucaria angustifolia (Bert.) O. Ktze. were used as sources of mitotic chromosomes. Both species have 26 chromosomes as the diploid number, consisting of 13 pairs of homologues.
Duarte, L. S., L. R. Dillenburg and L. M. G. Rosa. 2002. Assessing the role of light availability in the regeneration of Araucaria angustifolia (Araucariaceae). Australian Journal of Botany 50(6) 741 - 751. Abstract: The role of Brazilian pine (Araucaria angustifolia) in the process of forest succession is a topic of increasing controversy. While some authors consider the species to be pioneer, others consider it to be a climax species in relict temperate forests. We designed a field experiment to assess the role of light availability on the regeneration of A. angustifolia. The following three forests, with contrasting patterns of the species regeneration, were selected at a National Forest in southern Brazil: a Pinus plantation, an Araucaria plantation and a native araucarian forest. We analysed the population structure of Brazilian pine, the vegetation architecture, the light regime experienced by seedlings and the height growth of seedlings and sprouts. Brazilian pine colonisation and regeneration were observed in the Pinus and Araucaria plantations, respectively. No seedlings were found in the native forest. The greatest foliage area index and canopy cover were found in the native forest and the smallest in the Pinus plantation. In spite of the architectural differences, the native forest and the Araucaria plantation had similar light conditions and they both had lower levels of irradiances than the Pinus plantation. Seedlings and sprouts of Brazilian pine were found to occupy spots in the Araucaria plantation with canopy cover greater than the average forest conditions. Considering the similarity of understorey light conditions between the Araucaria plantation and the native forest (where no regeneration was taking place), we concluded that light availability was not limiting the regeneration of the species. Tolerance to shading and other aspects of the species indicate that Brazilian pine is not strictly heliophyllous and pioneer and is able to be established in the forest understorey.
Laharrague, Peter. 2003. Araucaria angustifolia. Species description in the Tropical Tree Seed Manual. Available http://www.rngr.net/Publications/ttsm/Folder.2003-07-11.4726 (accessed 2007.08.31).
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This page is from the Gymnosperm Database
URL: http://www.conifers.org/ar/ar/angustifolia.html
Edited by Christopher J. Earle
Last modified on 2007.08.31