PlantFiles: Hoop Pine
Araucaria cunninghamii

Important plant in colonial Australian gardens, and for use in furniture. Named for its distinctive 'hoops' around its trunk. Produces seedlings easily around its base which can be grown up. In its native habitat you often see it with massive staghorn ferns - the size of volkswagons! -clinging to its trunk; on Fraser Island especially. Trunk has a lovely red sheen which glints silvery in the sun. A very tall tree, it takes up little space in the garden, hence its popularity in Victorian 'gardenesque' gardens. Can sometimes produce a split trunk high off the ground. Beautiful in a grove. Leaves slightly spiky. Bright green elegant small cones.

Large tree that sort of looks like a messy Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla). Still, it has interesting foliage and seems to be easy to grow here in So Cal (though not so easy to come by).