I have recently purchase a home with a beautiful Monkey tree,it has globes in upper regions. I know nothing about these trees. Recently some of the branches have started to turn brown and yellow. Is this common or is there something wrong with the tree. Bright green growth is on the ends of other branches, and no other Monkey trees in the area appear to have browning areas. The trunk also appears to be leaking sap. Gwendolyn
The 'globes' are cones; they'll disintegrate in a month or two and shower seeds down on the ground below. The seeds are edible, like chestnuts (best roasted), provided they are good quality (filled, not empty). Pic: http://www.botanicalgarden.ubc.ca/forums/showpost.php?p=101905&postcount=9 If the branches that are turning brown are at the lower edge of the crown, that's normal, nothing to worry about. If they are at the top of the tree, it has a problem. The trunk leaking 'sap' (actually resin) is normal.
Thank you for the information. Do the seeds from the cones not have to be fertilized? or is that only for propagation? Do I ever need to fertile this tree. The at this house has been neglected for quite some time. What do you mean by the lower edge of the crown? The brown area are at the lower 2 feet of growth, bout 6 feet from the ground. and the tree stands about 40 feet and it appears that the brown part is only on one stalk of the tree. There are 3 distinct trunks Gwendolyn
They do need to be pollinated, by pollen from a male Monkey-puzzle tree (unlike most other trees, they are single-sex). If there is a male specimen not too far away, you'll get lots of good seed; if the nearest male is a long way off (a kilometre or more, too far for the pollen to blow easily), you'll only get empty seeds. The branches closest to the ground. Which from what you say sounds like it is the ones that are going brown, so don't worry about them. What happens is that as the tree grows, the new branches at the top shade out the old ones lower down, which then die and drop off. Eventually (in a couple of hundred years!) you will have a long bare trunk with the branches all way up high, like this pic of a very old tree in the wild: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:IMG_6492_monkey_puzzle.JPG
