DID YOU KNOW?

Bunya pine, Araucaria bidwillii, from Queensland, Australia, is related to NZ kauri. It’s been planted widely here in parks and large gardens, mainly in warm northern areas. The NZ Tree register lists more than 50 notable specimens. The tallest (tree 1025), at a mere 162 years old and measuring 38.4 metres high when last checked, is in Yatton Park, Fraser Street, Tauranga. It bears a sign warning of the danger of its soccer-ball size falling cones! There’s a slightly younger but very handsome bunya (tree 1030, pictured) on the Braemar Campus, Braemar Place, Nelson. At 25.4 metres high, it’s one of a group of trees associated with the former ‘Nelson Lunatic Asylum’ built in 1876. The tallest known living bunya is said to be 51.5 metres high, in Bunya Mountains National Park, Queensland.

The NZ Tree Register