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Queule - Gomortega keule

From the Gomortegaceae family

The Queule, also called Keule or Hualhual is an endemic species of Chile. It is distributed exclusively in the coastal mountain range, from the Maule River to the province of Concepción, south of the Nahuelbuta range.

 

It is a very scarce evergreen tree with fragmented populations that inhabits ravines and humid forest slopes.

 

Queules can grow up to 15 meters high and have a trunk up to 60 cm in diameter, although individuals up to 30 meters tall with trunks 1 meter in diameter have been reported in Nahuelbuta.

 

With grayish bark but with reddish-orange fissures and nodules. Light green, lustrous, pyramid-shaped, coarse-grained crown. It bears a yellowish drupe fruit up to 6 cm long, being one of the largest edible fruits of the Chilean native forest.

 

Queule, declared a Natural Monument, is in a state of Critically Endangered. It is prohibited by law to log or affect its natural areas.

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