Species
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Araucaria heterophylla (Salisb.) Franco

Błahoč, Norfolk Island Pine, Norfolk Island araucaria, Norfolk Island-pine

Climate known 43 photographs
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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 heterophylla is a species of conifer. As its vernacular name Norfolk Island pine implies, the tree is endemic to Norfolk Island, an external territory of Australia located in the Pacific Ocean between New Zealand and New Caledonia. It is not a true pine, which belong to the genus Pinus in the family Pinaceae, but instead is a member of the genus Araucaria in the family Araucariaceae, which also contains the hoop pine and the monkey-puzzle tree. It is sometimes also called a star pine, Polynesian pine, triangle tree or living Christmas tree, due to its symmetrical shape as a sapling.

Text from Wikipedia, “Araucaria heterophylla”, 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
(Salisb.) Franco
Native to
Norfolk Is.
Wild records
97 in range· 44 open

At a glance

Warmest month
23°C
Feb, mean day; nights 22 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1237mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Jun 130 mm (CHELSA)
Light
17–44DLI
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: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to March and June in the northern hemisphere). Habitat rain 1237 mm a year, wettest June at 130 mm, driest October at 71 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 15.0 °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 Abies columbaria (Dum.Cours.) Dum.Cours.; Abies columbaria Desf.; Araucaria excelsa var. glauca Carrière; Araucaria excelsa var. speciosissima Carrière; Eutacta excelsa var. aurea-variegata Carrière and 6 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: no season, 70% of the rain takes 8 months (September to March and June in the northern hemisphere).

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

The rain rule reads no season: 70% of the year's rain (897 mm of 1237 mm) takes 8 months, March to September and December. Mean temperature moves 5.7 °C between the warmest and coldest month. Months are the habitat's, southern hemisphere; shifted six months for a northern-hemisphere collection: September to March and June.

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 1237 mm a year, wettest June at 130 mm, driest October at 71 mm (habitat calendar, southern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1237 mm a year at the habitat, 897 mm of it March to September and December. Wettest month June at 130 mm, driest October at 71 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1190 mm to 1465 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: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 17 to 44 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA).

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 15.0 °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 15.0 °C, the absolute minimum 12.9 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 24.3 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.1 °C in August (across the envelope cells 15.9 °C to 16.3 °C), warmest day 23.1 °C in February (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 15.0 °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 62% 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 18 °C in Aug to 23 °C in Feb; mean night from 16 °C in Aug to 22 °C in Feb. The cold quarter, Jul to Sep, is the three months around the coldest night. 1237 mm of rain a year, most in Jun. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 6 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.9 °C and the 99th-percentile day 24.3 °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°24.3° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.9° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter050100150200mm rainDLI 17–44RH 56–62 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 6 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 °C23 / 22–2323 / 23–2323 / 22–2322 / 21–2220 / 20–2019 / 19–1918 / 18–1818 / 17–1818 / 18–1819 / 19–1920 / 20–2022 / 21–22
Night °C22 / 21–2222 / 22–2221 / 21–2220 / 20–2119 / 19–1918 / 17–1817 / 16–1716 / 16–1617 / 17–1718 / 17–1819 / 19–1920 / 20–21
Rain mm83 / 79–10591 / 87–11195 / 92–113118 / 112–152119 / 115–144130 / 126–157130 / 126–146103 / 100–11295 / 92–10971 / 69–9495 / 91–110107 / 103–116
DLI44 / 43–4440 / 40–4034 / 34–3427 / 26–2721 / 20–2117 / 17–1719 / 18–1924 / 24–2532 / 31–3238 / 38–3942 / 42–4344 / 44–44
RH %62 / 61–6462 / 60–6360 / 59–6259 / 58–6158 / 57–5957 / 56–5856 / 56–5856 / 56–5757 / 57–5958 / 58–5959 / 59–6061 / 61–63

Each figure is the median across the 6 grid cells holding the 82 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 2380:6958 (-29.025, 167.925). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.9 °C, 1st-percentile night 15.0 °C, 99th-percentile day 24.3 °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 6 distinct grid cells holding the 82 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 2380:6958 (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 -29.00_168.125, lapse-corrected +103 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 104 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.
NativeNorfolk Is.· introduced: Canary Is., Ascension, Bangladesh, New Zealand North
Kew's description“tree” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker-29.041, 167.955 · in the densest population, 86 records (89% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 97 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 44 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 2 km away. 734 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 15 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 97 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Araucaria heterophyllaAraucaria heterophyllaAraucaria heterophyllaAraucaria heterophyllaAraucaria heterophyllaAraucaria heterophyllaAraucaria heterophyllaAraucaria heterophylla

Photographs: (c) Leon Perrie, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Stella Fish, some rights reserved (CC BY); no rights reserved · CC0; (c) Mel Whiting, some rights reserved (CC BY) (2); (c) Sagnik Dutta Roy, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Mark Richman, some rights reserved (CC BY).

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 heterophylla, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

PGA: a software package for rapid, accurate, and flexible batch annotation of plastomes
Xiao‐Jian Qu, Michael J. Moore, Li D, Ting‐Shuang Yi (2019) · Plant Methods
Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using plant extracts and their antimicrobial activities: a review of recent literature
Chhangte Vanlalveni, Samuel Lallianrawna, Ayushi Biswas, Manickam Selvaraj (2021) · RSC Advances
Medicinal plants of the Andes and the Amazon - The magic and medicinal flora of Northern Peru
Rainer W. Bussmann, Douglas Sharon (2018) · Ethnobotany Research and Applications
Conifers as invasive aliens: a global survey and predictive framework
David M. Richardson, Marcel Rejmánek (2004) · Diversity and Distributions
Origin and Chemical Variation of Brazilian Propolis
Antônio Salatino, Érica Weinstein Teixeira, Giuseppina Negri, Dejair Message (2005) · Evidence-based Complementary and Alternative Medicine
A review on synthesis, characterization and potential biological applications of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles
Antony V. Samrot, Chamarthy Sai Sahithya, Jenifer Selvarani A, Sajna Keeyari Purayil (2020) · Current Research in Green and Sustainable Chemistry
Enantiomeric Natural Products: Occurrence and Biogenesis
Jennifer M. Finefield, David H. Sherman, Martin Kreitman, Robert M. Williams (2012) · Angewandte Chemie International Edition
Chemical Constituents of Brazilian Propolis and Their Cytotoxic Activities
Arjun H. Banskota, Yasuhiro Tezuka, Jeevan K. Prasain, Katsumichi Matsushige (1998) · Journal of Natural Products
Origin and diversification of living cycads: a cautionary tale on the impact of the branching process prior in Bayesian molecular dating
Fabien L Condamine, Nathalie S. Nagalingum, Charles R. Marshall, Hélène Morlon (2015) · BMC Evolutionary Biology
Phylogeny and Divergence Times of Gymnosperms Inferred from Single-Copy Nuclear Genes
Ying Lü, Jin‐Hua Ran, Dongmei Guo, Zu-Yu Yang (2014) · PLoS ONE

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 116 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.