Species
+

Araucaria cunninghamii Aiton ex A.Cunn.

Dorrigo-pine, Moreton Bay Pine, Moreton Bay pine, Moreton Bay-pine

Climate known 70 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Araucaria cunninghamii is a species of conifer in the family Araucariaceae, known as hoop pine. Other less commonly used names include colonial pine, Queensland pine, Dorrigo pine, Moreton Bay pine and Richmond River pine. The scientific name honours the botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham, who collected the first specimens in the 1820s. It is the earliest-diverging extant lineage within the genus Araucaria, and the only species within section Eutacta native to continental mainland areas; all other species in the section are naturally confined to islands.

Text from Wikipedia, “Araucaria cunninghamii”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Araucaria

Araucaria is a genus of evergreen coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. While today they are largely confined to the Southern Hemisphere, during the Jurassic and Cretaceous they were globally distributed. There are 20 extant species in New Caledonia, eastern Australia, New Guinea, Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay.

Text from Wikipedia, “Araucaria”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Araucariaceae
Described by
Aiton ex A.Cunn.
Native to
New Guinea, New South Wales, Queensland
Wild records
1424 in range· 503 open

At a glance

Warmest month
28°C
Jan, mean day; nights 20 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1233mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Feb 195 mm (CHELSA)
Light
20–41DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern). Habitat rain 1233 mm a year, wettest February at 195 mm, driest September at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 41 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 9.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Araucaria cunninghamii Aiton.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to November in the northern hemisphere (November to May at the habitat, southern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (958 mm of 1233 mm) falls in November to May, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 21.9 °C against a yearly mean of 19.6 °C). Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: May to November.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1233 mm a year, wettest February at 195 mm, driest September at 41 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1233 mm a year at the habitat, 958 mm of it November to May. Wettest month February at 195 mm, driest September at 41 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 874 mm to 1798 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 41 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 41 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 19, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 9.9 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 9.9 °C, the absolute minimum 7.6 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 30.7 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 10.1 °C in July (across the envelope cells 6.1 °C to 17.6 °C), warmest day 27.7 °C in January (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 9.9 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 56 to 63% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 19 °C in Jul to 28 °C in Jan; mean night from 10 °C in Jul to 20 °C in Jan. The cold quarter, Jun to Aug, is the three months around the coldest night. 1233 mm of rain a year, most in Feb. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 586 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 7.6 °C and the 99th-percentile day 30.7 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°30.7° 99th-percentile day (undated)7.6° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400mm rainDLI 20–41RH 56–63 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 586 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C28 / 25–3027 / 25–2926 / 23–2824 / 21–2621 / 19–2419 / 16–2219 / 16–2220 / 17–2323 / 20–2525 / 22–2726 / 23–2828 / 25–30
Night °C20 / 17–2420 / 17–2419 / 16–2417 / 13–2214 / 10–2011 / 7–1810 / 6–1811 / 7–1813 / 10–2016 / 12–2118 / 14–2320 / 16–24
Rain mm151 / 99–303195 / 126–349143 / 81–249114 / 60–19298 / 51–16368 / 40–11847 / 30–8143 / 28–7041 / 22–6676 / 39–105110 / 81–148147 / 119–196
DLI40 / 38–4235 / 34–3832 / 31–3627 / 26–3222 / 20–2720 / 19–2522 / 21–2728 / 26–3135 / 34–3938 / 37–4340 / 39–4341 / 40–43
RH %62 / 59–6763 / 61–6863 / 60–6862 / 59–6661 / 59–6559 / 57–6457 / 55–6356 / 54–6257 / 54–6259 / 56–6260 / 58–6461 / 59–65

Each figure is the median across the 586 grid cells holding the 1313 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 2407:6659 (-30.375, 152.975). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 7.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 9.9 °C, 99th-percentile day 30.7 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 586 distinct grid cells holding the 1313 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2407:6659 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell -30.50_153.125, lapse-corrected -21 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 97 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeNew Guinea, New South Wales, Queensland· introduced: Mauritius, Nansei-shoto
Kew's description“tree” · “subtropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-27.659, 152.892 · in the densest population, 834 records (59% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1424 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 503 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 31 km away. 111 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 111 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1424 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Araucaria cunninghamiiAraucaria cunninghamiiAraucaria cunninghamiiAraucaria cunninghamiiAraucaria cunninghamiiAraucaria cunninghamiiAraucaria cunninghamiiAraucaria cunninghamii

Photographs: no rights reserved · CC0 (2); (c) Tim, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Lucas Christofides, some rights reserved (CC BY) (5).

Photographs: iNaturalist and Wikimedia Commons did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Araucaria cunninghamii, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Planted Forests and Biodiversity
Jean-Michel Carnus, John A. Parrotta, Eckehard G. Brockerhoff, Michel Arbez (2006) · Journal of Forestry
Conifers as invasive aliens: a global survey and predictive framework
David M. Richardson, Marcel Rejmánek (2004) · Diversity and Distributions
TRANSLOCATION AND TRANSFER OF NUTRIENTS IN VESICULAR‐ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAS
Karen M. Cooper, P. B. Tinker (1978) · New Phytologist
Mechanical stability of trees under dynamic loads
Kenneth James, N Haritos, Peter K. Ades (2006) · American Journal of Botany
Crown size and growing space requirement of common tree species in urban centres, parks, and forests
Hans Pretzsch, Peter Biber, Enno Uhl, Jens Dahlhausen (2015) · Urban forestry & urban greening
Domestication to Crop Improvement: Genetic Resources for Sorghum and Saccharum (Andropogoneae)
Sally L. Dillon, Frances M Shapter, Robert J Henry, Gláucia Cordeiro (2007) · Annals of Botany
Soil Carbon Pools in Adjacent Natural and Plantation Forests of Subtropical Australia
Chengrong Chen, Zhihong Xu, Nicole J. Mathers (2004) · Soil Science Society of America Journal
Guide to handling of tropical and subtropical forest seed.
Lars Holger Schmidt (2000) · Research at the University of Copenhagen (University of Copenhagen)
Climate change accelerates growth of urban trees in metropolises worldwide
Hans Pretzsch, Peter Biber, Enno Uhl, Jens Dahlhausen (2017) · Scientific Reports
How perennial are perennial plants?
Johan Ehrlén, Kari Lehtilä (2002) · Oikos
Consequences of broadscale timber plantations for biodiversity in cleared rainforest landscapes of tropical and subtropical Australia
John Kanowski, Carla P. Catterall, Grant Wardell‐Johnson (2005) · Forest Ecology and Management
Restoration of plant biodiversity beneath tropical tree plantations in Northern Australia
Rodney J. Keenan, David Lamb, Oliver Woldring, Tennille R. Irvine (1997) · Forest Ecology and Management

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

Other Araucaria 5 in the reference

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive)
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-20 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-20; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 37 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.