Some trees are special simply because of how long they have been standing. The monkey puzzle tree, scientifically known as Araucaria araucana, belongs to a lineage so ancient that its ancestors shared the planet with dinosaurs, and individual trees living today can trace their own root systems back nearly two millennia.
Native to the temperate montane forests of Chile and western Argentina, it is the national tree of Chile, a cultural cornerstone of indigenous communities who have relied on it for food and ceremonies across generations, and one of the most visually distinctive conifers anywhere on Earth. Its name, according to popular legend, goes back to the 1850s, when English lawyer Charles Austen looked at one growing in a garden in Cornwall and declared that he might baffle a monkey if he climbed it, a passing remark that more or less lingered after everything else he ever said.
What does a monkey puzzle tree look like up close?
The Monkey Puzzle is an evergreen conifer tree that grows in a strikingly symmetrical, almost architectural, shape, with a single straight trunk up to 50 meters high and a canopy that begins pyramidal in youth before widening into a broad, rounded canopy of branches in maturity. The branches spread out in distinct horizontal swirls and are completely covered with stiff, sharply pointed triangular leaves that overlap like scales, wrapping tightly around each twig and stem.
These leaves are not smooth or temporary as is the case with most foliage. An individual leaf can remain attached to the branch for up to 15 years before falling off, giving the tree an almost creepy texture at close range, which immediately explains why Austin’s comment about climbing remains so powerful in the popular imagination.
A lifespan that extends across human civilizations
Individual Araucaria araucana trees are among the longest-lived organisms in South America, and some specimens are known to live for up to 2,000 years in suitable conditions. Research on the ecology and history of this species, documented in conservation studies, including those compiled by Kew’s Plants of the World Online, confirms that trunks can reach up to 1.5 meters in diameter and that the species’ ecology is closely linked to periodic natural disturbances including volcanic eruptions, forest fires, landslides and storms, all of which the tree is adapted to survive through thick bark and epicormic shoots able to grow after fire damage. and seed biology suitable for colonizing disturbed land.
It is plausible that today’s living, well-growing tree was a young sapling when medieval European kingdoms were taking shape, a fact that gives the ape mystery a historical weight that few living creatures can match.
Edible seeds that have sustained indigenous peoples for thousands of years
One of the most important features of the monkey puzzle in practical terms is its large, nutritious seeds, known as piones, which have formed an important part of the diet of the Mapuche-Pihuinche people of the southern Andes since long before European contact. The seeds are rich in carbohydrates and can be eaten raw, boiled or roasted over a fire. They are also fermented and made into a traditional drink called chafed. Research published in the journal Ecology and Society examining araucaria forest landscapes across South America has confirmed that albion fish have had profound cultural, economic and spiritual significance for the Mapuche-Pihuinche people for thousands of years, going beyond their nutritional value to form a cornerstone of community identity, seasonal rituals, territorial connections and harvest ceremonies.
During the fall harvest, piño can account for between 10 and 15 percent of a family’s diet, rising to provide the primary source of carbohydrates throughout the long Andean winter months from June to September.
Endangered status and long history of deforestation
Despite its protected status, the monkey puzzle tree is listed as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List, a designation it received in 2013 after decades of logging, land clearing, frequent human-ignited fires and overgrazing by livestock have steadily fragmented and reduced its natural range. Research into the effects of livestock grazing on araucaria regeneration, published in the journal Biological Conservation, found clear negative relationships between livestock activity and seedling survival, with grazing pressure dramatically suppressing the tree’s ability to regenerate naturally across large parts of its remaining habitat.
Chile declared the Puzzle Monkey a national monument in 1976, legally prohibiting logging, and the species is also listed under Appendix I of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, which restricts international trade.
Protection in Argentina also exists, although enforcement outside the boundaries of national parks remains inconsistent and logging pressure continues in certain areas.
The Mapuche-Pihuinche people and the sacred tree
For the Mapuche-Pihuinche people, the mystery of the monkey is not just a source of food or timber, but a sacred presence at the center of their cosmic and ceremonial lives.
The Mapuche name of the tree is Bihuin or Bihuin, and it gave one branch of the Mapuche people their tribal name, Bihuinche, meaning Bihuin people. Families traditionally establish summer camps near Araucaria during the harvest season, with each family having rights to a specific forest area.
Pinyon harvesting is not an occasional activity, but rather an organized event with community meaning that is directly linked to questions of territorial sovereignty and indigenous land rights, as documented in ethnobotanical research on indigenous resource rights and conservation published in the Journal of Economic Botany. The researchers have noted that the strength of indigenous interest in tree conservation is directly linked to self-determination, and that when local communities retain meaningful control over their ancestral forests, araucaria populations tend to be better managed and more ecologically stable than in areas where that control has been lost.
Why has the monkey puzzle become a popular ornamental tree all over the world?
Far from its native habitat, the monkey puzzle became very popular as an ornamental tree throughout the temperate world during the Victorian era, especially in Britain, where its bold, exotic-looking silhouette appealed to the period’s enthusiasm for exotic botanical specimens. It was introduced to Europe by the Scottish botanist Archibald Menzies in the 1790s, after collecting seeds from cones he had been served at a dinner party in Chile, and spread rapidly through country house gardens, public parks and suburban roads throughout the UK and abroad.
Today they remain a familiar and instantly recognizable sight in temperate gardens from the British Isles to New Zealand, and while garden specimens rarely approach the size of wild Andean trees, they serve as living ambassadors for one of the planet’s oldest and most resilient subspecies, a conifer that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, has outlived entire human civilizations, and still stands, thorny and undisturbed, in the mountain forests where it has always grown.