Norfolk Island Pine

[Tom Dunlap]

I got an email from a fellow who is designing a ropes challenge course that will go into a grove of NIP in Hawaii. Does anyone have a source of information on NIP? Strength, stability, decay resistance?

Thanks!

Tom

 

[The_Kid]

Tom, this may help a little bit. Once you know the scientific name, the web search results yield more useful info.

web page

 

[The_Kid]

I also read that this species is one of the first to be toppled by huuricanes in Florida, but they readily grow back if not totally tipped over. However, they have shallow root systems, so I think tipping could be another problem. Myself, I haven't seen them as anything more than a houseplant, but on their native island they obviously get quite large. Let us know what else you find out about the trees, and what they're gonna do with the ropes cousrse!

 

[joe]

Here's some supplemental information to go along with what has already been posted.

http://hort.ifas.ufl.edu/trees/ARAHETA.pdf

Joe

 

[D_kraus]

I worked with a lot of Norfolk Island Pine trees when I worked in Hawaii. They grow fast and up to 200'.
The branches snap off easy, like dead twigs. One can even strip out a removal by hand if you don't mind wrungs of sharp stubs every foot and a half.
The trunk is amazingly strong, they bend like a coconut palm. I've been up to the point when my spikes are getting in each others way, and everywhere I lean is the underside.
The scientific name is Araucaria excelsa, not really a pine, same genus as the Monkey puzzle.
Bowl turners love them.

 

[D_kraus]

I have not seen a 200' Norfolk Island Pine myself, that's just what the book said when I looked up the spelling of its scientific name.

 

[Yoav]

Cant find and A. excelsa on conifers.org, which is a fantastic reference worth checking out.

I think the name excelsa has been dropped for heterophylla.

Which is kind of a stupid name, because it means "different leaves" and they all look the same to me.

 

[D_kraus]

Yes I believe it has changed. My book,Tropical Trees of the Pacific, was printed in 1970. I think I perfer A. excelsa because they grow so fast. There is also a market for the cones.

 

[John_Paul_Sanborn]

I emailed this to Tom last week, but the USFS Forest Products Lab has some very good resources. The WARL site on the FPS system contains secific gravities of wood and modulus of elasticity. http://www2.fpl.fs.fed.us/CommNames2000.html it is a rather flaky server though, I frequently try to get on it and cannot.