Conguillío National Park

by Martin Mergili

The Conguillío National Park extends around the active, 3125 m high stratovolcano Llaima, whose eruptions have left their traces: the volcano reflects in in the clear waters of the Lago Conguillío, which was once impounded by a lava flow. The Llaima is an integral part of a mountain landscape dominated by southern beech forests: the evergreen coihue Nothofagus dombeyi grows at lower elevation whereas the deciduous lenga Nothofagus pumilio is omnipresent near the treeline area. However, the attention of most visitors is caught by another tree: primeval Chilean araucarias or monkey puzzle trees Araucaria araucana stand out of the southern beech forests like umbrellas, lending the landscape a very special character. The park can be reached from Curacautín or Melipeuco by car, and can be explored by foot on several trails. The ascent to the slopes of the Sierra Nevada is recommended in particular.

Click into the title image to view the national park from another perspective.

A primeval being: the monkey puzzle tree

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Click on the arrows or into the photo to learn about the monkey puzzle tree.

Araucaria araucana is considered a living fossile: remnants of 90 million year old relatives were found. This conifer occurs naturally only between 37° and 40° Southern latitude, mainly in the Andes. It often grows on permeable volcanic soils in mixed forests with the southern beeches Nothofagus dombeyi, N. pumilio, or N. antarctica. The monkey puzzle tree commonly forms the treeline at approx. 1700 m asl., sometimes together with shrub-like representatives of the two latter species of southern beech, but sometimes also as the sole species.

Where are my relatives?

Actually, the araucaria feels well in the national park: she has permeable volcanic soils on which she can grow well, and she has enough water to drink. Volcanic eruptions or wildfires, which occur from time to time, make her life more interesting. However, she is desperate: earlier, millions of years ago, many species of araucarias, closely related to her, lived in this area. As time was passing, more and more southern beeches came into the country. They were able to reproduce themselves more efficiently, so that the araucarias could not compete any more and had to emigrate, or even became extinct. Only herself - the most resistant of all - remained. She lives together in peace with the southern beeches, and takes over an important - sometimes even towering - position in the community, but there is nobody she can really talk with. She is therefore longing for other araucarias. She is convinced that they would still have to exist somewhere in the world - but she has no idea where to start her search.

Help the araucaria searching for her relatives by clicking in the corresponding areas of distribution. Thereby, consider that our araucaria has separated from her forefathers more than 100 million years ago, and take into account the relative position of the continents at that time.

Show solution

The Araucariaceae family of plants represents so-called southern conifers. They descend from common ancestors, which once lived on the southern continent of Gondwana. After Gondwana had split up into several smaller continents, the inividual species have evolved separately - but they did this slowly enough to retain major resemblances. Further, they could not spread over larger areas. In principle, araucarias could also be expected in South Africa. However, most probably they could not sucessfully compete with other species there. In general, the araucaria species are often rare and restricted to small areas. Wollemia nobilis was found as recently as in 1993 in the Blue Mountains of Australia: until then, it had only been known as a fossile.

The left photo shows a prominent individual of Agathis australis on the North Island of New Zealand, whereas Araucaria cunninghamii (right photo) lives in southeastern Queensland, Australia.

The volcano Llaima

This two-summit stratovolcano is one of the most active volcanoes in Chile. Its slopes form a mosaic of lava flows and pyroclasic deposits, which is a consequence of several eruptions. The forests of araucaria and southern beech can only slowly regain those pieces of terrain lost due to the volcanic activity. In 2008 and 2009, there were two eruptions in which ash was transported far into Argentina, affecting air traffic. Even pyroclastic flows occurred during these eruptions.

Did you already try to solve the exercises on the volcano Puyehue-Cordón Caulle and on the volcano Calbuco?

Here you can find a video of the eruption of January 2008: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfJP8jxcfX0.

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Gallardo, M.B., Pérez, C., Núñez-Ávila, M. & Armesto, J.J. (2012): Desacoplamiento del desarrollo del suelo y la sucesión vegetal a lo largo de una cronosecuencia de 60 mil años en el volcán Llaima, Chile. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 85(3): 291-306 [Access source]

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Walter, H. & Breckle, S.-W. (1999): Vegetation und Klimazonen. Ulmer, Stuttgart

The volcano Llaima in the Global Volcanism Program of the Smithsonian Institution [Access source]

Spanish-language CONAF entry on the Conguillío National Park [Access source]

Wikipedia article on Araucaria araucana [Access source]

Wikipedia article on the Araucariaceae [Access source]

Spanish-language Wikipedia article on the Conguillío National Park [Access source]

Spanish-language Wikipedia article on the volcano Llaima [Access source]