Araucaria angustifolia (Bertol.) Kuntze (Brazilian
pine) belongs to the family Araucariaceae. The genus
Araucaria is presently limited to the southern hemisphere,
and A. angustifolia and A. araucana are thesole representatives in South America. The geographical
distribution of A. angustifolia includes Argentina
and Brazil, where it is concentrated in the southernmost
states of Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande
do Sul, (Hueck, 1953; Reitz et al., 1988). The species
typically occurs in the mixed ombrophyllous forests
(IBGE, 1986) on high altitude plateaus, where it is the
dominant species of the upper canopy.