My Araucaria angustifolia, planted in 1998 in Olympia, Washington, is now about 15' tall. It endured 12 degrees F undamaged in December 1998, but it hasn't been that cold since then to really put it to the test. It hasn't had any damage, even last winter which was cold enough to freeze the larger of my two A. bidwillii.
the areas where Araucaria Angustifolia grows in Brazil has record low temperatures of -15C. Of course, such temperatures never occur for LONG periods of time, like in NY or northern Europe. HOWEVER, this is an ancient pre-historic species. It has seen glacial periods. Ok, we can suppose that the area where such tree grew got closer to the equator in glacial periods... HOWEVER, southern Brazil was quite colder in the 19th century, and the tree was even more common back then (before massive deforastation of Araucaria "pines" ocurred in the early 20th century). There are reports of blizzards in southern Brazil and snow accumulation of up to 2 meters in the 19th century. And araucarias survived and thrived. Anyway, Paraná Pines (common used name of the Araucaria Angustifolia) have a very slow growth in the early years of their lives. They may need several years to reach one meter tall, and then suddenly a growth explosion occurs and it can grow up to 1 meter per year. Even in its native area in southern Brazil, its quite difficult to regenerate areas that had been deforested. The tree sensivity and need of care harms reforestation efforts. The portuguese article on the tree is quite extensive. I suggest a Google Translate on it: http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucária
southern Brazil always had lots of fields like those. In the lower parts, the "pampas" just like in Argentina. And in the higher altitudes, where Araucarias grow, it has always been known as "campos de cima da Serra" (Top of the Serra Fields), long before deforastation. there are some projects to massively replant Araucarias. Last year, the Rio Grande do Sul state government started a project with seeds thrown from airplanes, trying to immitate the "job" of the Azure Jay... its expected 10 million young araucaria´s will germinate... http://g1.globo.com/economia/agrone...de-araucarias-para-reflorestamento-no-rs.html found this text about planting Araucaria Angustifolia trees... replanted areas have a VERY LARGE discrepancy about the number of trees per hectare and their growth. That´s why I say the fact some trees do not survive in the northern hemisphere may be related to several different reasons BESIDES the colder weather. http://www.ebah.com.br/content/ABAAAAxEwAC/araucaria-angustifolia Its 12 pages, and I suggest trying to translate and read MAINLY the 2.1 and 2.1.1 chapters.
finally, want to share with you guys some Google Street View links of areas with plenty of Araucaria Angustifolia for you to appreciate http://goo.gl/maps/YdSiI on the left side of this road, thousands of araucaria angustifolia http://goo.gl/maps/KbChu behind the small trees near the road, you can the tops of thousands of araucaria trees... http://goo.gl/maps/pjZlx many araucarias in an urban area http://goo.gl/maps/xrHj6 http://goo.gl/maps/nRQff
Nice to know they are replanting! But I would guess one major reason for failure of a lot of the plane-sown seed will be mammal predation: when the Azure Jays plant the seeds, they bury them where rodents, etc., will not find them, but when dropped by plane, they lie on the surface, easy to find and 'steal'.