Nothofagus dombeyi (Coihue or Coigüe) is a tree

Tree

A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...

 species

Species

In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...

 native to southern Chile and the Andean parts of Argentine Patagonia

Patagonia

Patagonia is a region located in Argentina and Chile, integrating the southernmost section of the Andes mountains to the southwest towards the Pacific ocean and from the east of the cordillera to the valleys it follows south through Colorado River towards Carmen de Patagones in the Atlantic Ocean...

. It grows from 35 to 45° South latitude between 700 and 1,200 m (2300–4000 ft) above mean sea level. It forms dense forest

Forest

A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...

s, like those found in the Los Alerces

Los Alerces National Park

The Los Alerces National Park is a national park in Chubut Province, Argentina, some 30 miles from Esquel. It is a park of 2,630 square kilometres along the border with Chile, best known for the alerce trees from which the park takes its name.The park was created in 1937 in order to protect the...

 and Nahuel Huapi

Nahuel Huapi National Park

Established in 1934, the Nahuel Huapi National Park is the oldest national park in Argentina. It surrounds Nahuel Huapi Lake in the foothills of the Patagonian Andes. The largest of the national parks in the region, it has an area of , or nearly 2 million acres...

 national parks

National Parks of Argentina

The National Parks of Argentina make up a network of 30 national parks in Argentina. The parks cover a very varied set of terrains and biotopes, from Baritú National Park on the northern border with Bolivia to Tierra del Fuego National Park in the far south of the continent .The creation of the...

. It thrives in low hills with gentle slopes, being very demanding of water and soil; the largest forests are found on the slopes looking south, and the healthier specimens tend to grow on the banks of rivers and lakes. It sometimes forms mixed forests with Araucaria araucana

Araucaria araucana

Araucaria araucana is an evergreen tree growing to tall with a trunk diameter. The tree is native to central and southern Chile, western Argentina and south Brazil. Araucaria araucana is the hardiest species in the conifer genus Araucaria...

(monkey-puzzle) trees, for example in the Villarrica National Park

Villarrica National Park

Villarrica National Park is located in the Andes, in the Araucanía and Los Ríos regions of Chile, near Pucón. The centerpiece of the park is a line of three volcanoes stretching transversely to the Andean range: Villarrica, Quetrupillán, and Lanín....

 in Chile. It is fast-growing and well-distributed species that lives in several climatic conditions.

It can become a large tree, up to 45 m (148 ft) high and 1.9 m (6.2 ft) in diameter. One tree, felled by a storm in 1954, reportedly measured 2.55 m (8.36 ft)in diameter at the height of a man's chest and a total volume, including the branches, of 87 m³

Cubic metre

The cubic metre is the SI derived unit of volume. It is the volume of a cube with edges one metre in length. An alternative name, which allowed a different usage with metric prefixes, was the stère...

.

The coihue usually has elegant branch

Branch

A branch or tree branch is a woody structural member connected to but not part of the central trunk of a tree...

es which are flattened horizontally. The leaves

Leaf

A leaf is an organ of a vascular plant, as defined in botanical terms, and in particular in plant morphology. Foliage is a mass noun that refers to leaves as a feature of plants....

 are evergreen

Evergreen

In botany, an evergreen plant is a plant that has leaves in all seasons. This contrasts with deciduous plants, which completely lose their foliage during the winter or dry season.There are many different kinds of evergreen plants, both trees and shrubs...

, small (25–40 mm long and 10–16 mm wide), thick, coriaceous and lustrous, dark green, with toothed borders and an acute apex; they have a very small, rounded and rhomb-shaped petiole

Petiole (botany)

In botany, the petiole is the stalk attaching the leaf blade to the stem. The petiole usually has the same internal structure as the stem. Outgrowths appearing on each side of the petiole are called stipules. Leaves lacking a petiole are called sessile, or clasping when they partly surround the...

. The tree is hermaphroditic

Hermaphrodite

In biology, a hermaphrodite is an organism that has reproductive organs normally associated with both male and female sexes.Many taxonomic groups of animals do not have separate sexes. In these groups, hermaphroditism is a normal condition, enabling a form of sexual reproduction in which both...

; male and female flower

Flower

A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...

s are grouped in the same tree, and pollen is spread by wind action. The flowers are little visible because they are green and measure less than 5 mm. The fruit

Fruit

In broad terms, a fruit is a structure of a plant that contains its seeds.The term has different meanings dependent on context. In non-technical usage, such as food preparation, fruit normally means the fleshy seed-associated structures of certain plants that are sweet and edible in the raw state,...

 is a triangular nut

Nut (fruit)

A nut is a hard-shelled fruit of some plants having an indehiscent seed. While a wide variety of dried seeds and fruits are called nuts in English, only a certain number of them are considered by biologists to be true nuts...

 that measures about 4–7 mm.

Coihue timber

Timber

Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...

 is considered excellent. In Argentina its exploitation is limited by the presence of the best forests within national parks. The wood is bright grayish white; the heartwood is a pale pink-white, which darkens after cut. Its texture is very fine and makes it easy to work with. It has a beautiful engraving, is semi-heavy, hard, durable, easy-to-work and decay resistant. It is used in furniture, barrels, floors and building. It has been introduced as ornamental in the British Isles

British Isles

The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...

 and also in the North Pacific Coast of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

.

The name of the tree is often spelled coigüe (reflecting the common pronunciation with an epenthetic

Epenthesis

In phonology, epenthesis is the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially to the interior of a word. Epenthesis may be divided into two types: excrescence, for the addition of a consonant, and anaptyxis for the addition of a vowel....

 g). Other related trees named coihue are the Coihue de Magallanes (Nothofagus betuloides

Nothofagus betuloides

Nothofagus betuloides, the Magellan's beech and is sometimes known by the common name guindo, is native to southern Patagonia.In 1769 Sir Joseph Banks collected a specimen of the tree in Tierra del Fuego during Captain Cook's first voyage....

), and the Coihue de Chiloé (Nothofagus nitida

Nothofagus nitida

Nothofagus nitida is an evergreen tree, native from Chile and probably Argentina, it lives from 40° to Última Esperanza .-Description:...

).

Further reading

• Libro del Árbol: Especies Forestales Indígenas de la Argentina de Aplicación Industrial (edited by Celulosa Argentina S. A., Buenos Aires, October 1975)
• Donoso, C. 2005. Árboles nativos de Chile. Guía de reconocimiento. Edición 4. Marisa Cuneo Ediciones, Valdivia, Chile. 136p.
• Hoffmann, Adriana. 1998. Flora Silvestre de Chile, Zona Central. Edición 4. Fundación Claudio Gay, Santiago. 254p.
• Rodríguez, R. & Quezada, M. 2003. Fagaceae. En C. Marticorena y R. Rodríguez [eds.], Flora de Chile Vol. 2(2), pp 64–76. Universidad de Concepción, Concepción.

External links

• "Nothofagus dombeyi" in Encyclopedia of Chilean Flora (in Spanish)
• Nothofagus dombeyi in Chilebosque (in Spanish)
• dombeyi, description and images from ChileFlora (in English)
• dombeyi in Scotland
• Nothofagus, les hêtres du bout du monde... (in French)