Norfolk Island pine
| Pinophyta: Conifers | ||||||||||||||
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| Araucaria heterophylla (Salisb.) Franco |
The Norfolk Island pine or Norfolk pine Araucaria heterophylla is a distinctive conifer, a member of the ancient and now disjointly distributed family Araucariaceae.
As its name implies, the tree is endemic to Norfolk Island. However, its distinctive appearance, with widely spaced branches and a symmetrical, triangular outline, has made it a popular cultivated species, either as a single tree or in avenues. It is particularly widely planted in Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and California. Young trees are sometimes grown as houseplants in areas where the winters are too hard for them to grow outside (they will not, for example, flourish in the northern United States, but are sometimes used as Christmas trees there, as elsewhere). The timber is good for woodturning, and is extensively used by Hawaiian craftspeople.
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