Araucaria columnaris
species of plant
Araucaria columnaris, the coral reef araucaria, Cook pine (or Cook's pine), New Caledonia pine, Cook araucaria, or columnar araucaria, is a species of conifer in the family Araucariaceae.
Distribution
The tree is endemic to New Caledonia in the Melanesia region of the Pacific.
It was first classified by Johann Reinhold Forster, a botanist on the second voyage of Captain James Cook to circumnavigate the globe as far south as possible. It is named directly after Cook, and not from the Cook Islands.
Description
Araucaria columnaris is a distinctive narrowly conical tree growing up to 60 m (200 ft) tall in its native habit. The trees have a slender, spire-like crown. The shape of young trees strongly resembles A. heterophylla. The bark peels off in thin paper-like sheets or strips and is rough, grey, and resinous. The relatively short, mostly horizontal branches are in whorls around the slender, upright to slightly leaning trunk. The branches are lined with cord-like, horizontal branchlets.
“Araucaria columnaris” enters the record as species of plant. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Araucaria, columnaris and species can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Araucaria columnaris” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Araucaria, columnaris and species provides the most credible route into that argument.
Datasets, specimens, observations and peer-reviewed methods provide the appropriate test for the technical claims summarized here. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 24, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q134045. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
A general summary may omit uncertainty, sample limits or methodological disagreement that is explicit in the technical record. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Araucaria columnaris” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.