Hoop pine

Araucaria cunninghamii

Elizabeth farm

Colonial icons

Members of the Araucaria genus are some of the most important trees used in early colonial gardens. With their dramatic symmetry, impressive scale and distinctive foliage, these native pines played a significant role in determining the Australian landscape of the 19th century. While the Norfolk Island pine dominated coastal plantings, the hoop pine proved hardier further inland, as at Elizabeth Farm.

William Macarthur, the horticulturist son of Elizabeth Farm founders, Elizabeth and John Macarthur, listed the hoop pine for sale in every published catalogue for his nursery at Camden Park. In 1855 it was among 300 samples of Australian timbers, selected with Charles Moore, Director of the Sydney Botanic Garden, that Macarthur exhibited at the Exposition Universelle in Paris.

Published on 

Florilegium plants

Browse all
Florilegium plants

A gathering of flowers: the Florilegium collection

Finely detailed botanical artworks reveal the range of plants introduced to Sydney’s gardens over the past 200 years

Florilegium plants

Blue ginger

Blue ginger was one of many hundreds of exotic plants William Macarthur grew at the family estate at Camden Park, where he established a nursery

Florilegium plants

Bunya pine

Owners of large 19th-century estates often planted tall trees around the house or homestead so they could orient themselves from the surrounding area

Florilegium plants

Camellia japonica 'Cleopatra'

Vaucluse House has a significant collection of historic camellia cultivars, some of them dating back to the mid-1800s