Whence
Norfolk Island pine
Plant

Where does Norfolk Island pine come from?

The Norfolk Island pine comes from Norfolk Island, a small volcanic island in the South Pacific between New Zealand and New Caledonia. It grows wild only there and on tiny Phillip Island nearby, yet it now lines warm coasts around the world and stands indoors as a living Christmas tree.

Cook's tall, straight trees

In October 1774, on his second Pacific voyage in HMS Resolution, James Cook became the first European known to sight the island, which was then uninhabited. Going ashore, he found that its chief produce was 'Spruce Pines', growing in abundance and to a vast size, two to three feet across and more. For masts and yards, he judged them better than the pines of New Caledonia or New Zealand. His men cut down one of the smallest trees to make a topgallant mast or yard.

Masts that never sailed

Britain's navy needed masts and fibre for rope and sails, and Norfolk Island seemed to offer both: tall trees and New Zealand flax. A British party of convicts and free men landed on 6 March 1788. But once the island was settled, the pines proved not resilient enough for masts, and the idea was abandoned. The timber found other uses instead, in building, woodturning and crafts.

Not from Norfolk, not a pine

The name points to England only by way of a family. Cook named the island after Mary Howard, Duchess of Norfolk, who had died in May 1773; at sea since 1772, he could not have known. Nor is the tree a true pine of the genus Pinus. It belongs to Araucaria, the genus of the monkey-puzzle tree and the hoop pine. Many 'Norfolk Island pines' sold as pot plants in the United States are really Cook pines from New Caledonia.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org › Araucaria heterophylla ↗ · conifers.org ↗ · captaincooksociety.com ↗ · norfolkislandnationalpark.gov.au ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Norfolk Island ↗

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