Some call it the Christmas tree, and Captain Cook’s pine (Araucaria cookie/Araucaria columnaris) does make for the perfect ‘season’s greeting’ tree. For the uninitiated, Captain James Cook was a British explorer, cartographer, and captain in the Royal Navy, who, on one of his voyages in the 1770s, came across the archipelago now named after him (Cooks Islands) in the South Pacific Ocean, and saw the pines there. The tall, sturdy trees caught his eye and he found them to be excellent for ships masts and yardarms. An evergreen coniferous tree from the Araucariaceae plant family, it will take a keen eye to spot one in Chandigarh. While nature loving residents have grown them in their houses near boundary walls, you can see a couple of them in the Sector 3 park opposite the MLA’s hostel in Chandigarh. Where you are more likely to see many more them however is far away from here, in Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea. Cook’s Pine is often confused with the Norfolk Pine. Their leaves are identical but you can tell a Cook by its slightly slanting trunk — the Norfolk grows ramrod straight — and flaky bark. The branches are close-set, while Norfolk branches are more open. Striking and beautiful, the Cook’s needle-like leaves give off a luxuriant shine. The tree grows at a decent speed, is drought resistant and free of pests and other plant diseases. Of course, pollution levels hurt it, but in large, clean spaces, it thrives. So, try and plant one this Christmas — we hear it agrees with reforestation.
