Araucaria nut

Araucaria araucana is a striking conifer that can grow 30 to 40 metres tall, with a straight trunk, whorled branches and stiff, scale-like, spiny leaves that overlap like reptile scales. Female trees bear huge round cones, up to about 20 cm across, that break apart in autumn and release 150 to 200 seeds each.

Each seed is an elongated, pointed, slightly curved piñón about 3 to 5 cm long, with a reddish-brown leathery shell and a creamy-white, starchy kernel. Boiled, the kernel is soft, mild and slightly sweet with a chestnut-like character. Seeds are sold fresh in season in southern Chile and Argentina, as well as dried, roasted or as flour, though they remain a regional food.

The tree is native to the Andes of south-central Chile and neighbouring southwestern Argentina, where it forms forests at middle to high elevation on volcanic soils. It is a living relic of an ancient group of conifers that were widespread in the Mesozoic. The species is slow-growing and long-lived, with trees recorded at well over a thousand years old.

Its Mapudungun name is pehuén, from which the Pehuenche, people of the pehuén, take their name. The English name monkey puzzle was coined in Britain in the 19th century, when someone remarked that climbing the spiny branches would puzzle a monkey.

For the Pehuenche, a branch of the Mapuche people, the araucaria forest was the centre of life. Families moved up to the forests each autumn to gather the piñones, which were boiled, roasted, ground into flour, fermented into a drink or buried in pits to preserve for winter. The tree is regarded as sacred, and cutting living trees was traditionally taboo.

The tree reached Europe in the late 18th century. The Scottish naturalist Archibald Menzies is said to have pocketed seeds served at a dinner in Valparaíso during Vancouver's expedition and raised seedlings in London, which became the parent of many Victorian garden trees. The monkey puzzle became a fashionable ornament in British gardens and later spread through parks around the world.

In the wild, forests were reduced by logging, fire and grazing, and the species is classed as endangered by the IUCN. Chile and Argentina protect the tree by law, and the Pehuenche communities still have rights to harvest seeds, which remain a cherished food and a source of seasonal income. Conservation efforts include seed-collection rules that aim to leave enough for natural regeneration and wildlife.

Piñones are boiled in salted water and peeled, roasted in the embers or in a pan, or ground into flour for breads and porridges. They are used in stews and in the sweet and savoury cooking of southern Chile, such as in pastries, and fermented drinks have been made from them traditionally.

The tree itself provides timber, though harvesting living trees is restricted, and it is widely planted as an ornamental. In Chile the seeds are a seasonal street food in autumn, sold by the bag, boiled and still warm, in towns near the Andean forests.

Araucaria seeds are mainly starch and provide energy, along with some protein, fibre and minerals, and they are low in fat compared with many nuts. They have been a staple food in the Andes for centuries. There is little modern clinical research on the seed, and traditional health claims have not been tested.