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 raucária is the common name of the botanical species Araucaria angustifolia, native to the forests and open fields of southern Brazil. These trees cover a great expanse of territory in Paraná, especially in higher, colder regions. The araucária is also known as the Brazilian Pine, Paraná Pine, Pinho, Mission Pine, Saint Joseph Pine, Caiová Pine, Curi, or Curiúva, among other names.

     The family Araucariaceae is a member of the genus Coniferae. There are nineteen species of Araucarian Conifers. Occuring exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere, they are found in South America, Australia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, and on Norfolk Island. In South America, besides Araucaria angustifolia, which occurs in southern Brazil and the Misiones territory of Argentina, Araucaria araucana grows in southern Chile and Argentina.

     It has been estimated that the araucária existed 150 million years ago, before the continent Gondwana began to break up.

     It is an impressive tree. Its trunk is straight and cylindrical and can reach a height of fifty meters and a diameter of 1.2 meters.The shape of the crown changes as the tree grows. Up to twenty years, the crown is conical. After twenty years, the crown begins to take on the shape of a cup, and this shape develops during the tree’s maturity. Its long main branches can reach a length of nine meters and are lightly curved upwards. The secondary branches are called “vanes” (grimpas). The sharp needles grow all along the branches and even on the trunk. A mature tree will produce an average of forty globular “cones”, or pinhas, every year. The pinhas contain large pine nuts called pinhão (pl. pinhões), which have been an important food for many centuries. Araucárias can live longer than 200 years.

     Large numbers of Araucárias make up a type of ecosystem called a mixed ombrophilous forest (Forest of Araucárias). Other species are present in these ecosystems, such as cinnamon, imbuia (ocotea porosa, called the Brazilian Walnut because of the color of its wood), cedar, erva-mate (yerba mate), and ferns like the xaxim (Dicksonia sellownia). The State of Paraná is also called Land of Pines, and the araucária is the state tree.