Araucariaceae of New Caledonia

Frequent readers of the questions posed on the UBC Botanical Garden Forums will note that there is a lot of interest in monkey puzzle trees - in fact, “monkey puzzle trees” or some variation on that theme is always in the top ten searches people do to arrive at the garden site using search engines. Monkey puzzle trees, Araucaria araucana, are indeed deserving of people's curiousity - they look exotic, the seeds are edible and they succeed very well in the Vancouver climate.

However, while Araucaria araucana is fairly well protected conservation-wise, the same cannot be said for some of its relatives across the Pacific Ocean in New Caledonia. Thirteen species of Araucaria and 5 species of Agathis (45% of all members in the family Araucariaceae) are under threat in New Caledonia due to human-induced bush fires, mining and urban expansion. The Institut de Recherche Pour le Développement in France, along with the Natural Resources Department of New Caledonia, are studying the Araucariaceae of New Caledonia with the goal of preserving as much of the genetic diversity of these small populations of plants as possible.

Links:

Araucaria araucana from the Gymnosperm Database
Araucariaceae, also from the Gymnosperm Database
Araucariacées de Nouvelle-Calédonie : espèces endémiques en danger from the Institut de Recherche Pour le Développement (in French - if you don't understand French, it is still worth examining the accompanying photographs)
Araucariaceae of New Caledonia: endemic species in danger, an English translation of most of the above article, but without photographs. From Eurakalert.org.
Diversity, Endemism, and Extinction in the Flora and Vegetation of New Caledonia by Dr. Porter Lowry II of Missouri Botanical Garden. This paper is accompanied by excellent photographs of the landscapes and flora of New Caledonia.

Posted by Daniel Mosquin at 4:39 AM on January 15, 2004

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