Araucarias And Kauris (Araucariaceae)

This group gathers Conifers and Other Gymnosperms subcategory members belonging to the ancient Southern Hemisphere conifer family Araucariaceae, a lineage far more diverse in the age of the dinosaurs than today, now largely restricted to South America, Australia, New Guinea and New Zealand. It spans the genus Araucaria, including the monkey puzzle tree of Chile and Argentina and the bunya, hoop and Norfolk Island pines of Australia and its Pacific islands, all called pine despite no close relation to the true pines of the family Pinaceae, and the kauris of the genus Agathis, immense, slow-growing New Zealand and Southeast Asian trees historically logged for both timber and resin. It also includes the Wollemi pine, a critically endangered Australian species known from fewer than a hundred wild trees and once thought extinct for millions of years before its rediscovery in 1994.