Garden and Green

Monkey Puzzle Tree

There is no puzzle as to why the Araucaria araucana or more widely known as the Monkey Puzzle Tree is so popular. Its dramatic appearance like something from Jurrasic park on a suburban street really does bring admiring glances. However, like all good things there is quite a wait before the tree will resemble something like the one pictured here.

Originally from Chile in South America, the trees can reach a height of 40 metres. It thrives in temperate climates and is ideally suited to the UK. Its leaves are thick and sharp, which believe it or not were evolved to prevent dinosaurs nibbling it before its branches were out of reach. The tree is ancient in its origins and is often described as a 'living fossil'.

In its early years the tree makes a decorative easy to manage garden feature that looks excellent in a rockery or border. As the years go by the tree will take on its mature look, which is still easy to look after, with no dropping leaves and with it's straight up growth it does not bush out to much.

So why is it called Monkey Puzzle? you ask. Well, the story goes that when the tree was still relatively uncommon in UK gardens during the Victorian era, a sample was planted at Pencarrow, a visitor on seeing the trees shape and structure of the pointed leaves noted that 'A monkey would be puzzled as to how to climb that?' And so the name Monkey Puzzle came about.

A small tree a few feet heigh can be bought from garden centres for about £25-£35. If you have a small property and want to move in the next few years then why not buy one now and put in a half whisky barrel or large pot, which will give your decking or patio a dramatic feature. Then when you finally move to your dream home you can take it with you and plant it out in the garden and sit back and think of Brachisaurus's and Diplodocus's .