Thousands of species are endangered today due to increment of the human activities on Earth which has widely impacted the climate and environment. Every species is trying to adapt the environmental change but some of them are unable to, the result is they are continuously decreasing in numbers. Now thousands of plant species are endangered today and one of them is the monkey puzzle tree. This is the most special tree on Earth and was the witness of the Dinosaurs Era.
The Monkey Puzzle Tree is the only tree left from the Jurassic era, over 145 million years ago the tree species is continuously survived but now endangered today. The scientific name of the tree is Araucaria Araucana, the tree can reach up to the height of 160 feet with a life span of 700 years and is still evergreen today. The existence of Monkey puzzle trees is in danger after these million years.
The first thing that blows the mind of the viewer that the tree is probably its upright form and its symmetrical and almost pyramidal shape. If anyone moves closer, they will see the tree’s strange leaves and trunk.
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The leaves of the monkey puzzle tree are thick and stiff and have a pointed tip. The leaves somehow overlap each other and completely cover the branches. The tree leaves are said as reptilian because they remind people of a reptile’s scales. The trunk is grey in color and has circular ridges at the end.
You may be found this tree usually in parks or gardens anywhere but in forests, the tree only grows in the forests of Chile and Argentina, like the slope of Patagonia’s volcano. The question is, what causes it to shrink? The answer is simple as that, the rapid increment of human activities in the environment, fires, deforestation, overgrazing, and other things have caused reduced the growth of monkey puzzle trees and resulting shrinking the of tree species in the world.
The Monkey evergreen tree that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, is very precious. Araucaria Araucana outlived the dinosaurs. The extinction of this ancient tree also causes a threat to the austral parakeet, which just depends on its large seeds as a food source. Monkey puzzle pine nuts are important to green-hued parrots.
According to the research, they have found that the austral parakeet helps in enhancing the germination speed of the seeds by partially eating seeds that drop to the ground and are not picked up by seed collectors and help in regenerating the new plants. That’s how the parakeets help in regenerating the new trees from the mother plant.
But the locals of Chile have collected the nuts that are dropped by the parakeets on the ground for making pieces of bread or so. So, the authorities have limited the number of taken nuts from the forests.
However, the monkey puzzle pine nuts are the traditional food source for the native Mapuche people. The monkey puzzle pine nuts are being used to make bread recipes. Although the Mapuche people have the right to collect pine nuts from their ancestral areas, the local government restricts the limit to collect the nuts by the public and requires a permit for commercial purposes.
But somewhere the illegal part is also being done meanwhile, the illegal collection still going on which exceeds the limit of collecting the seeds causes threatening the monkey puzzle tree populations. The Mapuche people have a history of protecting the monkey puzzle tree which is connected with their lifestyles. The Mapuche people have even asked for legal protection for the tree that was facing extinction. Although, the Mapuche people are working hard to replant and regenerate the monkey puzzle tree populations.
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