Monkey Puzzle Tree

On my morning walks I passed by this unique tree and was intrigued by it uniqueness. Recently I pointed it out to our grandson John when he was visiting us. "That's a monkey puzzle tree," he said. During his college years at the University of Washington he saw a similar tree on campus and remembered the interesting name.

The monkey puzzle tree is native to southern Chile, western Argentina and southern Brazil.  It often reaches over 100 feet and can live for hundreds of years. The needles are triangular and very sharp. The tree got its name when a man in Britain remarked that it would puzzle a monkey to climb the tree.  It became known as the "money puzzle tree."

There are male and female trees. This female tree has large, ball-like cones. Each cone contains about 200 seeds. 

Click here for a video news report about the monkey puzzle tree

More information and pictures here, here, and here

Pictures of monkey puzzle trees here