Araucaria columnaris is a popular garden tree in warm temperate climates. It is a magnificent focal point on a lawn and an excellent street tree.

Araucaria columnaris (New Caledonian Pine) is a narrow columnar evergreen conifer with short, mostly horizontal branches that grow in whorls around the slender, upright to slightly leaning trunk. The branches are lined with cord-like, horizontal branchlets clad with small, green, incurved, spirally arranged, overlapping leaves. The juvenile leaves are needle-like while the adult leaves are scale-like and triangular. The bark is gray, rough and resinous, exfoliating in thin strips. New Caledonian Pine is dioecious, with the male and female cones on separate trees. The female cones, up to 6 in length (15 cm), are upright, scaly, egg-shaped and located in the upper branches. The male cones, up to 4 in. long (10 cm), are drooping, scaly, cylindrical and hang from the lower branches.

A columnar tree with a straight trunk and numerous lateral branches and with time they lose their lower branches. It has dense foliage. Suitable for frontline coastal positions. Adaptable to most soils, however, lightly amend heavy clay or sandy soils with organic matter. Dig holes wide, not deep and try to keep the root ball intact when removing from the containers. Water deeply. Watering from a hose or a sprinkler should be done slowly and deeply, not frequently, to avoid shallow root development or root diseases. Allow soil to dry several inches deep before irrigating. Araucaria columnaris can grow to a height of 20-30m and a width of 5-7m.

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