Saturday, April 26, 2014

Norfolk Pine Trees


The palace of the Marquis of Pombal and 1st Count of Oeiras, in Oeiras, was built 250 years ago. The two trees are as old as the building.

10 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

magnificent! love old trees!

Arija said...

A splendid place and the trees do look vey old.
Aurocarias are perfect for sea-side promenades as they are unaffected by strong winds and quite salt tolerant.

Sharon said...

What a fantastic scene!

Sylvia K said...

Beautiful palace and incredible trees!! Terrific capture for the day, Jose, as always! I love the beauty and the history you share with us! Thank you! Have a lovely weekend!

LOLfromPasa said...

Love that scene!

William Kendall said...

A beautiful, immaculate property!

Calendula said...

Great shot of that interesting historic place. 250 years old trees! That's terrific!

Joan Elizabeth said...

Maybe just a little less than 250 years old. The first known European discovery of Norfolk Island (which is where these trees come from) was by Captain Cook in 1774 and seeds/seedlings would have taken time to get back to England and then make their way to Portugal.

Norfolk Island pines have "travelled" and are seen at many Australia beaches. I understand there are quite a lot seen in Portugal seasides too.

Also, they apparently they are not pines but that doesn't stop us calling them that.

Unknown said...

@Joan: Thank you for the information. I've just done some research and found out that there are 19 species of Araucaria, some native to South America. Maybe I'm mistaken (they all look very similar) and these are not Norfolk Trees. Perhaps these have come from Brazil...

orvokki said...

Lovely image.
Those old trees are wonderful.
Hugs