#trunk scan

Bunya Bunya at Maungakiekie, I have posted about this tree before but posting again because he is so cool. Its the only other tree I know of in Auckland comparable in size to the three in the Pah homestead and this tree may be bigger. I find it particularly interesting how wild its lower branches are! super wiggly and sprawling in stark contrast to the more typical straight non branching upper branches. In my mind these lower branches seem less typical growth habits for Bunya. I have seen one other Bunya at the Pah had wiggly lower branch but not multiple, or at this scale! You can also see in the second image from the bottom a super weird looking branch that splits, or it may be an example of Inosculation or self grafting its hard to see where it goes upwards. The branches have a lot of bract retention of dead bracts. Greater than most other Bunya. This gives him a super dense and hairy look. Super dense, massive, fans of foliage, with the flat opposite leaf morph being in the highest abundance compared to the radial whorls that are more prevalent in some Bunya. it makes for an extraordinary looking tree. Huge and funny looking.

-36.902204178086244, 174.77930454344278

Norfolk Island Araucaria, located at the Pah Homestead/Monte Cecilia Park, Auckland, New Zealand. In the last picture she is the tree middle back, can that her tops has a ton of cones! funny as I didn't see any lower down! Out of all the the Norfolk Araucaria at the park she has the most columnaris-like bark texture, by which I mean lots of peeling large flakes of bark particularly on the lower trunk. There are lots of reasons for exfoliating bark but lets hope its for a growth spurt! Right on the edge of what is now a car park this is one of the only trees of its kind in the park that you can walk around the entire base without obstruction from other plants or lower branches of the tree itself. Super cool! attached at the bottom is one of my more detailed scans of the trunk, twice as many pictures to try capture all that flaky bark. Amazing tree.

Trunk Scan: https://skfb.ly/pLPqX

Full moon, checking out the majestic Norfolk Araucaria! Some of my faves, I have posted about them before, these are from two groups planted in Browns Bay, Auckland, New Zealand. First 6 images are from cluster at first coordinate and later images are from stand further north at second coordinate. -36.71485245172493, 174.74950685790208 -36.71286425201447, 174.74991507292705