Chile 2 - Trees And Shrubs From Central Chile

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This is the second blog about the native plants I saw on my recent holiday in Chile.

Heading south from Santiago, we made our way through the Central Valley down to La Araucania and the Lakes District. This took just over a week, alternating one day of travel followed by one day of looking at the local plant life. Towards the end of this part of the trip, we saw probably the most easily recognisable tree in the world, araucaria araucana, the monkey puzzle. These originally made up large areas of the landscape but farming and managed woodland have gradually driven them to less hospitable areas of poor soil (where nothing else will grow); fortunately these areas are now protected in National Parks.

Luma appiculata grows quite happily in milder areas of the UK where it will make a small tree, flowering in late summer, with attractive cinnamon-coloured bark that peels in autumn

Discaria trinervis grows in dry soils, making a large, upright shrub. It has fragrant flowers but the stems carry thorns and it is not quite hardy enough for the UK

Drimys winteri grows quite happily in sheltered places over here, making a large upright tree/shrub. It carries fragrant flowers in spring

Lomatia is a family of shrubs scattered through South America and Australasia. This is lomatia hirsuta, an upright shrub from moist woodland

We saw several berberis in both woodland and very open, exposed positions. The most spectacular was berberis linearifolia (the variety’ Orange King’ is readily available in the UK)

There were also some very good, dwarf forms of berberis darwinii

Berberis buxifolia also made a good impression

Ovidia andina is a small, neat shrub we found in woodland. It is related to daphnes but is not listed in Plant Finder

Embothrium coccineum is the national symbol of Chile. We saw it almost every day on the trip, even in hedgerows around fields where its orange flowers formed a stunning backdrop. The further south we went, the more the flowers became red rather than orange. The foliage is quite variable but the narrower-leaved forms are the hardiest

To be continued …

• 31 Dec, 2010
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