Araucaria

Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae, today largely restricted to the Southern Hemisphere despite having been globally distributed during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. Twenty extant species are recognised, occurring in New Caledonia, where fourteen species are endemic, as well as eastern Australia (including Norfolk Island), New Guinea, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. The genus is best known to the general public through the distinctive Chilean pine or monkey-puzzle tree, Araucaria araucana, prized ornamentally for its sharply pointed, overlapping leaves and unmistakable silhouette; despite the common name pine being applied to several species, such as the Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla), Araucaria is only distantly related to the true pines of the genus Pinus.