These trees are in San Diego, in a fairly new area called Liberty Station, a Naval Training Center until some time in the 1990's. There's a lot I don't know here. I don't know how many different Araucaria are here. I don't know if these trees were planted with the new development or are older than that. I don't know if all the cones are male cones. I've photographed all the different cones I saw. Tree 1 - [edited] now identified as Araucaria columnaris, common name Cook Pine In the details that it occurred to me to notice, this tree looks like the next tree, except that it has cones from the bottom up to the top, it's more columnar and the branches aren't as bushy. The last photo shows leaves from this tree on the left and the next tree on the right. Tree 2 - [edited] now identified as Araucaria columnaris, common name Cook Pine This is a very fine looking tree. That it's so much nicer looking than the others is what made me wonder if it was really a different species or just a better looking individual of the same species. All the cones were up near the top. Tree 4 (sorry about this numbering, but I wanted to show the tree I really think is different last) - - [edited] now identified as Araucaria heterophylla, common name Norfolk Island Pine Some of trees looked intermediate between Tree1 and Tree 2. I wasn't going to document this one, but I wondered if the cones I saw under the next tree were from one of the other trees, so I noticed that this tree had cones like those, but did not seem to be the same type of tree. Tree 3 - [edited] now identified as Araucaria bidwillii, common name Bunya-Bunya Pine This seems to be different from the others. The leaves in the comparison photo are all from the same tree. I did finally find cones on the tree that match the ones I found on the ground. [edited] Note Michael's comment that though these trees are commonly called "pines", they're not really pines, not being in the family Pinaceae (nor the genus Pinus).
Trees 1, 2 = Araucaria columnaris (including the whole row of 4 trees in the first pic) Tree 3 = Araucaria heterophylla Tree 4 = Araucaria bidwillii All the cones are pollen cones. Seed cones are globose, around 8-12cm diameter in the first two species, around 20-30cm diameter in the last.
Michael F got thrown by the original numbering dis-order and gave the wrong numbers to the Norfolk Island pine and the bunya-bunya. The bunya-bunya is the last tree shown. It appears 1 + 2 is often grown as 4 in Hawaii and perhaps elsewhere. Your photos show the habit differences between them, which manifest after these have been growing for awhile.
Thanks Michael and Ron. I should have thought about how a reply might have been worded and chosen a better description. I see that I was supposed to have learned the bunya-bunya in Melbourne three years ago. Here are some photos I took at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne and the Geelong Botanic Gardens. All I remembered were the cones, and this Liberty Station group seems to be all males. Would anyone object if I were to edit the original posting and put in the names? Should I wait a month? I know people enjoy reading these and guessing the answers, but I use the postings as an information source, so would like to see the names now with the photos.
Here are a lot of Araucaria columnaris, common name Cook Pine, photos from Plants of Hawaii. And Araucaria heterophylla, common name Norfolk Island Pine, photos from the same site.
No objection to adding the names, but as an educational information source, accuracy is important, so (as they are not pines Pinus), they shouldn't be called pines.
Full accuracy includes mention of common names in usage, whether they appear apt or not to the writer.
