Hi there, We have been trying to search for this plant species but to no avail. May someone please help us figure out what this plant is called and how to take care of it so it grows? It hasn't grown in 5 years but we've had it for 15 years! Thanks!
More likely Coral Reef Araucaria (Araucaria columnaris). Looks very similar to A. heterophylla, but much commoner in cultivation.
wow, those two species are SO SIMILAR. Thank you for the information as well, Richard. How am I supposed to know which one I have? I live in midwestern US. My mother bought this more than 10 years ago at a plant store. It was supposed to be an indoor plant... Thank you both I will do more research on them both but at least they are kind of similar, no? thanks again!!
The Araucaria heterophylla, Norfolk Island Pine, is commonly sold as a houseplant on this continent. It think it would be very unusual for A. columnaris to be sold as such. Please, anyone, correct me if I'm wrong about that. It could just be that any tree that looks somewhat like this is sold as Norfolk Island Pine. Your plant will never look like the ones in this thread, but here is a comparison of three Araucaria. Identification: - How many different species in this collection?
Nope - it's A. columnaris that is commonest in USA, invasive and abundant in Hawaii (with most seed merchants collecting seed there), and common in southern Florida & southernmost California; it is very commonly mislabelled as A. heterophylla, though. A. columnaris is also the commoner of the two in Asia and South America, but in cultivation in Australia and New Zealand, A. heterophylla predominates. In the Mediterranean, both are planted, but with a slight dominance of A. heterophylla. The two are easily distinguished by crown shape when mature, but small plants up to 5-10 years old are effectively indistinguishable. Example pics of cultivated trees: A. columnaris (Maui, Hawaii) - dense branching with fairly short, slender, ± level branches (narrow columnar crown), branches usually only with unbranched side shoots A. heterophylla (New Zealand) - open branching with long, stout branches angled upward (broad conic crown), branches often with branched side shoots And mature trees in the wild: A. columnaris, New Caledonia A. heterophylla, Norfolk Island
Those photos certainly undid any ideas I had that I might be able to distinguish them. Your descriptions are probably what will help the most.
So it's likely impossible for indoor specimens to be positively identified through appearance as most are young; even old ones will likely not resemble anything in the wild because of less than ideal growing conditions indoors.
My understanding supports what Michael is saying. Since we have some Araucaria spp growing here in Florida, I have a mild curiosity. This is just one of those cases of widely disseminated inaccuracies. We've all called them Norfolk Island pines, but they are actually Cook pines. Not Araucaria heterophylla, but actually Araucaria columnaris. The pic on the aforelinked site has a striking comparison of the two. I imagine when they were first propagated the difference was simply not noted, and the misnomer stuck. But it is clear that the A. columnaris is what is planted from the ubiquitous tropical Christmas evergreen. Other sites throughout internetland indicate that this misidentified plant is the one and only that we see in North America, unless we happen to be very astute collectors. Yes, there are other Araucaria spp. found in North America, but if we think it's a Norfolk Island pine, it's a nearly always a Cook pine.
