Weird Tree with Wounds in the Park
Well, I call it the "Weird Tree", or I would if I spoke English in daily life. I actually call it "rare boom".
It is a monkey puzzle tree aka monkey tail tree (Araucaria araucana), apenboom or slangenden in Dutch, that stands in the park across the street from my house.
This photo shows either a female cone, or a bud with new leaves, or needles, or whatever the proper name is for these triangular spikes:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 300mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/250s
On many branches, it had these wounds, oozing resin:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 240mm, ISO200, f4, 1/320s
I have no idea what causes this; they could be the marks left by cones that fell off, but I am open to better suggestions.
As you can tell, I know little about this tree; it is not native here. These trees hail from from South America.
Meanwhile, another import, a rhododendron, was showing its first flowers of the season:
Olympus Stylus 1s, 240mm, ISO200, f5.6, 1/500s
Available soon in many more colours.
That's all from the park for now; thanks for watching!
I've never seen a tree like that, great patterns of the leaves! Perhaps its name comes from it being a difficult one for a monkey to climb!
It does, actually, I just looked that up:
"Sir William Molesworth, the proud owner of a young specimen at Pencarrow garden near Bodmin in Cornwall, was showing it to a group of friends, one of them – the noted barrister and Benthamist Charles Austin – remarked, "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that". As the species had no existing popular name, first "monkey puzzler", then "monkey puzzle" stuck."
Ha! :)
Wonderful photographs of the monkey puzzle tree @ocrdu. That wound is weird as you say. It doesn't make sense that it's caused by the cone falling off does it? That would be a pretty poor design my Mother Nature.
Hopefully, our rhododendrons will be in bloom soon. We have lots of them in our local parks.
have a lovely weekend! 😊
I got that weird tree in the middle of my backyard
I often get poked by those damn needles
they hurt a lot!
did you climb to get a shot of that ball of sprout or is that a flower?
the sap is flammable imho
the tree does that - just crack open and cry hahaha
anyway great shots!
Thank you. No, I didn't climb it, it looked far too sharp all over 8-).
I'm not sure if it is a female cone or a leaf bud opening up. So yours also has these strange "wounds"? I wonder what the point of them is.
oh yes that would hurt and be sticky indeed
yes, it's always crying - all four seasons specially on sunny days
Awesome photography first time we see the plants its amazing
I like plant
Kept it up
Beautiful plant. You took the best spot of it. So natural
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Very nice flower, I like your photography, but alas, it seems that the stem is rotten.