Araucaria, Quinta da Vila - Jardim do Largo dos Chorões, 8550-467, Monchique, Portugal. - Exceptional Trees on Waymarking.com

With it's last measurement taken in 2006 it will have grown a bit since. Then it was 36.5m high, had a base girth of 10.2m and a girth at 1.30m of 4.1m. due to growing here for 150 years it has an asymmetric top being 20.0m east-west and 19.0m north-south. The family name is Araucariaceae and the scientific Latin name is Araucaria heterophylla, in common English - Norfolk Island Pine, in Portuguese - Araucária-de-norfolk. But it's not a pine, it's related to the Monkey Puzzle trees.

The tree has been given a local name - Qinta da Vila - due to it's impressive height and age. The definition of quinta in Spain, Portugal, and Latin America is a large house in the country or on the outskirts of a town. So this tree is the 'large one' of the town.

Norfolk Island Pines were reputedly valued by sailors who would use the trunk of the tree as a mast because it was straight and, when even young, tall and slender. They would plant these trees on islands around the world to keep the supply of spare masts available 'in the green' as it were. But it seems this reputation is not valid as trials after James Cook first found these trees (on Norfolk Island) did not prove it to have the necessary resilience required.

There is a whole grove of them probably planted by the first settlers around 1815 in a valley on the windward side of Ascension Island ready to be used if required. When I was on Ascension we used to walk over to Breakneck Valley to see them and picnic beneath them. As with the specimen in Monchique they too were too big in girth to be any use as ships masts having grown old gracefully.

The Portuguese ICNF, Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, lists this tree as No. KNJ1 / 235 with Classification: DR No. 190 II Series of 14/08/1993, the same as on the information board.

Genus/Species: Araucaria heterophylla (Salisbury) Height: 120 Girth: 13 Method of obtaining height: Reliable source Method of obtaining girth: Reliable source Location type: Park Age: 150 Historical significance: It's the largest of the Araucariaceae family in the area. Website reference: [Web Link] Parking coordinates: N 37° 19.209 W 008° 33.173 Walk time: 10 Planter: Not listed Photograpy coordinates: Not Listed

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