Excited to see this monkey puzzle tree (Araucaria arcaucana) in the Presidio ≈doing well. It's between two beautiful Queen Anne Victorians on Presidio Boulevard just west of Funston Avenue. Monkey puzzles are native to Chile and western Argentina; they're related to other trees in the Auraucaria family, such as Norfolk Island Pine, cook pines, and bunya bunyas. The origin of the name 'monkey puzzle' derives from its early cultivation in England around 1850, when the species was still very rare in gardens and not widely known. Sir William Moleswort, the owner of a young specimen at Pencarrow garden near Bodmin in Cornwall, was showing it to some friends, when one of them remarked, "It would puzzle a monkey to climb that". As the species had no popular name, first 'monkey puzzler', then 'monkey puzzle' stuck. Very glad to see the Presidio planting interesting trees like this. (I wish they would plant some Wollemi pines (Wollemia nobilis) (hint, hint!)).