This group of five Cook pines, an uncommon tree in New Zealand, are found interspersed among Oriental Bay’s iconic Norfolk Island pines, the first of which were planted in 1921 [1]. The Wellington City Council has all the trees along Oriental Parade in its register of protected trees, including the Cook pines, but has them incorrectly listed as Araucaria heterophylla. A. columnaris are distinguishable from their close relative by the narrowness of the branches, the foliage appearing in whorls, and their most distinguishing feature, a noticeable lean. Large sample research has shown that in over 90% of cases for trees in the southern hemisphere there is a distinct lean to the north [2], with less than 9% of trees leaning in a different direction. When seen against the perpendicular and pyramidal Norfolk Island pines the lean is very noticeable (see the photos). In this group of five, three definitely show a north lean, one definitely has a south lean, and one is a mixture of the two showing a corkscrew like form. There is no accepted explanation for this lean phenomenon, it being rare amongst trees, and even the 13 other araucarians likewise endemic to New Caledonia do not display the same lean pattern [2]. The five trees seem to be of a similar age, nowhere near as old as the 103 year old Norfolk Island pines [Lloyd, M., 2025].

References
1. ‘Oriental Bay Parade’, Evening Post, 20 April 1921, p. 6.
2. J. Johns et al. 2017, 'Worldwide hemisphere-dependent lean in Cook pines', Ecology 98(9): 2482-2484.