''Araucaria hunsteinii'' (Klinki , Klinkii or "Klinky", native names Rassu and Pai) is a species of ''

Araucaria ''Araucaria'' (; original pronunciation: .ɾawˈka. ɾja is a genus of evergreen Conifer, coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. There are 20 extant taxon, extant species in New Caledonia (where 14 species are endemism, ende ...

'' native to the mountains of

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

. It is threatened by

habitat loss Habitat destruction (also termed habitat loss and habitat reduction) is the process by which a natural habitat becomes incapable of supporting its native species. The organisms that previously inhabited the site are displaced or dead, thereby ...

It is a very large

evergreen In botany, an evergreen is a plant which has foliage that remains green and functional through more than one growing season. This also pertains to plants that retain their foliage only in warm climates, and contrasts with deciduous plants, which ...

tree In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are ...

(the tallest in

New Guinea New Guinea (; Hiri Motu Hiri Motu, also known as Police Motu, Pidgin Motu, or just Hiri, is a language of Papua New Guinea, which is spoken in surrounding areas of Port Moresby (Capital of Papua New Guinea). It is a simplified version of ...

, and the tallest species in its family), growing to tall, exceptionally to , with a trunk up to diameter. The branches are horizontal, produced in whorls of five or six. The

leaves A leaf (plural, : leaves) is any of the principal appendages of a vascular plant plant stem, stem, usually borne laterally aboveground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", wh ...

are spirally arranged, scale-like or awl-like, long and broad at the base, with a sharp tip; leaves on young trees are shorter (under ) and narrower (under ). It is usually

monoecious Monoecy (; adj. monoecious ) is a sexual system in seed plants where separate male and female cones or flowers are present on the same plant. It is a monomorphic sexual system alongside gynomonoecy, andromonoecy and trimonoecy. Monoecy is conne ...

with male and female

cones A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines conn ...

on the same tree; the pollen cones are long and slender, up to long and broad; the seed cones are oval, up to long and broad. The seed cones disintegrate at maturity to release the numerous long nut-like

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiospe ...

Cultivation and uses

It is a fast-growing tree, and is being tested as a potentially important

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, wi ...

crop in tropical highland climates.

Pests

''Barinae'' spp., ''

Setomorpha rutella ''Setomorpha'' is a monotypic moth genus in the family Tineidae described by Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1852. Its only species, ''Setomorpha rutella'', the tropical tobacco moth, was described by the same author in the same year. It is a widel ...

'',

Microlepidoptera Microlepidoptera (micromoths) is an artificial (i.e., unranked and not monophyletic) grouping of moth families, commonly known as the 'smaller moths' (micro, Lepidoptera). These generally have wingspans of under 20 mm, and are thus harder to ...

s, ''Cacatua galerita'' (the

Sulphur-crested cockatoo The sulphur-crested cockatoo (''Cacatua galerita'') is a relatively large white cockatoo found in wooded habitats in Australia, New Guinea, and some of the islands of Indonesia. They can be locally very numerous, leading to them sometimes being ...

) are pests of

pine nut Pine nuts, also called piñón (), pinoli (), pignoli or chilgoza (), are the edible seeds of pines (family Pinaceae, genus ''Pinus''). According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, only 29 species provide edible nuts, while 20 are trade ...

production in ''A. hunsteinii''. ''C. galerita'' may cause half of the seed crop to be lost in a year, mostly by trying to eat cones that are not yet ready. However, another source describes ''A. hunsteinii'' as suffering few pests ''in plantations'', and therefore substituting '' A. cunninghamii'' in plantations that suffer more from pests.

References

* * *Howcroft, N. H. S. (1978). Data sheets on species undergoing genetic impoverishment: Araucaria hunsteinii. ''Forest Genetics Resources Information'' 8: 31-37. *Russo, R. O., & Briscoe, C. B. (2002). Performance of Klinki (''Araucaria hunsteinii'' K. Schuman) in the Humid Tropics of Costa Rica. ''Journal of Sustainable Forestry'' 14 (4): 13-18. {{Taxonbar, from=Q136739 hunsteinii Flora of New Guinea Flora of Papua New Guinea Near threatened plants Taxonomy articles created by Polbot