08/29/2026
One of the rarest trees in the whole valley—if not the rarest.
Every time I drive past this tree, I think about the massive 20–30 pound pine cones it produces. When they fall from that height, they can cause some serious damage.
Well, last week, while driving underneath this tree, one of those enormous pine cones came crashing down and landed just in front of our car. Talk about timing!
I’ve been fascinated by this tree for years, ever since John Petty, who owns the house next to it, told me about its unique botanical history.
It’s called a Bunya Bunya tree (Bunya pine), and it’s native to Australia. It’s an incredible and unusual tree—and this old giant is definitely one of Hemet’s hidden treasures.
Bunya pine / Bunya Bunya tree (Araucaria bidwillii).
The distinctive features in your photo are the massive upright form and the unusual dense, rosette-like clusters of stiff foliage at the ends of the branches. Older Bunya pines can develop exactly this somewhat prehistoric, irregular appearance.
One correction to what you remembered: it isn’t originally from New Zealand or Tasmania. Bunya pine is native to Queensland, Australia. It belongs to the ancient Araucaria group—the same broader group as Norfolk Island pine and monkey puzzle trees.
And these things are remarkable: mature Bunyas can produce huge, heavy cones—sometimes around 10–20 pounds or even more. You definitely wouldn’t want to be underneath one when it drops.
Given the size of the Hemet tree in your picture, that looks like a very old specimen. If you’d like, I can dig into Hemet’s historical records and old newspapers and see if we can figure out when that particular Bunya Bunya was planted, how old it might be, and whether it really is the only one in Hemet.
