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18: Plants producing exudates

Araucaria bidwillii Hook.

Araucariaceae

Bunya pine, bunya-bunya (En). Philippines: bunya pine. Thailand: son nam (Central), bunya-bunya.

Australia (Coast District of Queensland); introduced and planted in South-East Asia and other tropical and subtropical regions mainly as an ornamental.

The resin exuding from wounds is quite hard and brittle and has a pleasant odour. It can be used like incense and be employed in making perfumes and unguents. In Australia the seeds are valued as food or eaten roasted as a snack. Locally the tree is of commercial value as a Christmas tree. The wood can be used for timber like that of other Araucaria species, especially for interior work. In South-East Asia Araucaria bidwillii is mainly planted as an ornamental tree.

Large, usually monoecious, evergreen tree up to 45 m tall and up to 1.5 m in diameter; bark up to 15 cm thick, rough, dark brown to black, resinous, outer bark scaling off in thin layers. Leaves clustered at the end of branches, needle-like, entire, sessile, glossy green, discolorous, on sterile twigs lanceolate, 13—50 mm x 5—10 mm, apex a long, stiff point; on fertile shoots and higher branches leaves are shorter (up to 25 mm) and incurved. Inflorescence a cone; pollen cones cylindrical, up to 17 cm x 1 cm, situated towards the end of the branches in groups of 15—20; seed cones situated terminally on a shoot with modified leaves, ellipsoidal, up to 30 cm x 22 cm, weighing 4—8 kg, scales with thick, woody wings, apex scales with long, recurved point, cones disintegrating when mature and each cone containing about 150 seeds. Seed pear-shaped, 5—7 cm x 3 cm, seedcoat fused with its scale; germination hypogeal, cryptocotylar. Araucaria bidwillii prefers a moist but well-drained, fertile soil, but it will grow on poorer soils when moisture conditions are favourable. In south-eastern Queensland it prefers the higher elevations (800—1000 m altitude), with annual rainfall of about 1000 mm and a temperature range from below 0°C up to 30°C. Its growth is rapid and it does not suffer from serious diseases or pests. The seeds were so important as food resource for the Australian aborigines that the right to collect the seeds from certain trees used to be claimed by individual families who passed on this right from father to son. Bunya pine produces a heavy cone crop only once every 3 years.

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[13]Ciesla, W.M., 1998. Non-wood forest products from conifers. Non-wood forest products 12. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, Italy. 124 pp.
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[16]Dallimore, W. & Jackson, A.B., 1966. A handbook of Coniferae and Ginkgoaceae. 4th Edition. Revised by S.G. Harisson. Edward Arnold Ltd., London, United Kingdom. 729 pp.
[25]Howes, F.N, 1949. Vegetable gums and resins. Chronica Botanica Company, Waltham, Massachusetts, United States. 188 pp.
[39]Smith, A.C., 1979. Flora vitiensis nova [A new flora of Fiji]. Vol. 1. Pacific Tropical Botanical Garden, SB Printers, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States. 495 pp.

E. Boer & P.C.M. Jansen

Boer, E. & Jansen, P.C.M., 2000. Araucaria bidwillii Hook.. In: Boer, E. and Ella, A.B. (Editors): Plant Resources of South-East Asia No 18: Plants producing exudates. PROSEA Foundation, Bogor, Indonesia. Database record: prota4u.org/prosea