Araucaria Excelsa ✦ Validated & Secure

: Seeing the trees' perfectly straight trunks—often reaching over 60 meters (200 feet)—Cook and his botanist, Joseph Banks, believed they had found a perfect source for ship masts and yards for the British Royal Navy.

The European "chapter" of its story began in , when Captain James Cook sighted Norfolk Island during his second voyage on the HMS Resolution . araucaria excelsa

Despite failing as a industrial resource, the tree's striking made it an immediate hit as an ornamental plant. araucaria excelsa