Araucaria Brasiliensis

(my apologies for editing this a third time. I should proof read before publishing. The problem with photos, though is that sometimes they're not positioned where I want them so I need to come back and edit)

While I work on my "dangerous childhood" post I want to share with you some photos of a pine tree, which is native of Southern Brazil. Its scientific name is Araucaria Brasiliensis (or Angustifolia), but it is commonly called simply Araucária or pinheiro do Paraná (Paraná's pine tree). It is a beautiful and unique tree which produces a large and edible pine nut (photos of the "nut" below).

This tree reminds me of my childhood since I grew up in Paraná and most of my extended family, both in my mom and my dad's side still lives there. I visit Paraná, particularly Curitiba, the state capital, every time I travel to Brazil and I've been trying to photograph this tree. Here are some of these photos from January 2004, most taken from the car while we were traveling. Last year I took some more, but I think they're in a CD somewhere.

And here's its "nut" which is eaten after it's boiled for a while in salted water. It's called pinhão (or big pinha, or pine cone). These photos were taken from the internet.