Bunya Pine - Araucaria bidwillii - Care Guide
Araucaria bidwillii! Often referred to as Bunya Pine, this huge evergreen tree is native to
southeast Queensland Australia. An ancient species, you'll find it growing in wet tropics in Queensland with the tallest one presently living situated in the Bunya Mountains National Park. It grows massive round-shaped pine cones that contain large edible seeds!
With its flavour varying depending on how it's eaten, Bunya Pine generally has a delicious flavour! In its raw form, it has a mild sweet taste often compared to water chestnuts. You can enjoy them raw on their own, but Bunya Pine is best enjoyed roasted!
You can expect this extraordinary native tree to produce its enormous pine cones from mid-summer to early Autumn every 2 to 3 years. However, it will take 25 to 30 years before it starts producing pine cones.
Once the pine cones are falling from the tree that's when they're ready for harvest. Waiting until this stage will guarantee the most delicious taste!
Quick Care
| Botanical Name | Araucaria bidwillii |
| Size Plant: | Seedling pot, min 20 cm tall |
| Frost Tolerance: | Tolerant once established. |
| Drought Tolerance: | Tolerant once established. |
| Soil Type: | loamy, well-drained soils. |
| Sun: | Full-sun/Part-shade |
| Size: | 35m Tree. |
| Pots: | Does well in pots. |
| Feeding: | Feed a high-quality native plant food every 6 months. |
Planting
For best results, plant your Bunya Pine in loamy, well-drained soils and place your plant in full sun. You can also grow in part shade for reasonable results. This huge, evergreen tree can attain a height of up to 35m.
Frost tolerance
Bunya Pine is frost tolerant as a seedling and once established.
Sunlight
This lovely species does well in full sun but it can thrive in part sun but with lower fruiting amounts.
Maintenance
Watering & Drought Tolerance
Being a mountain alpine species, Bunya Pine is super drought tolerant as its roots go so deep into the soil providing it with plenty of water. However, if you live in a dry area with low rainfall, you'll want to make sure you keep your Bunya Pine hydrated to prevent drying out. During wintertime, you can hold back on watering.
Fertilising your Bunya Pine Plant
Bunya Pine seedlings need more nutrients so we recommend applying organic fertiliser to the soil in Autumn to promote root growth and improve cold resistance. After growing into a large tree, as long as the soil is fertile, there will be no need to apply fertiliser.
Harvesting
Harvesting should be done when the fruits have fallen to the ground. Be careful when doing this as these pine cones weigh upwards of 10kg and they fall from a 35-meter height!
Growing Bunya Pine in pots
Bunya Pine does really well in pots! They're super hardy and make a fantastic live Christmas tree should you want to use it for that!