monkey puzzle

9.0

A large South American tree with spiny branches and edible seeds

noun
/ˈmʌŋki ˈpʌzl/

: pino de la araucaria

monkey puzzle tree

But that was the start of where the monkey puzzle tree come from.

Examples

But that was the start of where the monkey puzzle tree come from.

Anything Goes With James English
It's it's an Amanita that grows in mixed monkey puzzle trees with southern beach, so Aralgadia with Notofagus.
The family tree of Smedley Faversham, however, bore no resemblance to any botanical life form except the species of tree that is known as a monkey puzzle.

Fiction book (2001)
The monkey puzzle tree is known for its unique, spiny branches and edible seeds.
During our visit to Chile, we saw the impressive monkey puzzle tree in the garden.
The monkey puzzle tree can grow up to 40 meters tall and is often used as an ornamental plant.

Synonyms

Araucaria araucana

vsmonkey puzzle

Specialized

9.9

A large evergreen tree from Chile and Argentina with spiral branches and edible seeds

is the common ornamental name rather than the formal botanical name

chile pine

vsmonkey puzzle

8.9

A large evergreen tree from Chile with twisted branches and edible nuts

is the widely used ornamental name rather than a regional label

Surface Forms

monkey puzzle singular

monkey puzzles plural

Morphology

monkey + puzzle

This is a fixed common name for a particular tree species and its meaning (a large evergreen coniferous tree) is not compositionally derivable from 'monkey' + 'puzzle'. A B1 learner who knows the constituents would be unlikely to infer a species of tree from those words alone, so the expression is idiomatic/lexicalized and unpredictable.

Etymology

Monkey puzzle may come from a story long ago in Britain: people looked at the tree's sharp, spreading branches and said a monkey would be 'puzzled' trying to climb them. That's why the words monkey and puzzle became the name for this prickly tree.