Cook pine

Column-slim araucarias gave the Isle of Pines its name – their silhouettes are the most recognisable feature of New Caledonia’s landscape.

The Cook pine grows to 60 m and forms an exceptionally narrow, columnar crown of short, horizontal branches densely covered in scale-like needles. Old trees shed their lower branches, and new ones sprout from the trunk, so the crown looks like a column or tower. Research has shown that the trunks of these trees lean towards the equator all over the world. It grows on limestone and coral coasts, and as an ornamental it is planted throughout the tropics and subtropics.

Significance in the country

Captain James Cook, seeing forests of these trees in 1774, named one of the islands the Isle of Pines (Île des Pins). In Kanak culture the araucaria symbolises man and the clan’s ancestors – it is planted at the entrance to villages and in front of chiefs’ huts.

Where it grows

On the limestone coasts of Grande Terre, especially in its southern part, on the Isle of Pines and on the Loyalty Islands; widely planted in villages and towns.

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