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You will find our young Monkey Puzzle tree inside the Japanese Garden.

• Evergreen conifer

• Leaves are thick, tough and scale-like

• The national tree of Chile

• Native to central and southern Chile and western Argentina

• First brought to the UK in 1795 by Archibald Menzies, an explorer and plant collector from Perthshire

• Can grow up to 30m in height

Fun facts:

The common name “monkey puzzle” was coined in the mid-1800s when Charles Austin, a noted barrister, on seeing the tree for the first time commented that climbing the spiny, spiralling branches would be a puzzle even for a monkey.