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# In southern Brazil, on a high plateau in the coldest part of the country, an araucaria forest grows
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/na-iuge-brazilii-na-vysokogornom-plato-v-samom-kholodnom-raione-strany-rastiot-araukarievyi-les/
- Published: 2026-07-16T06:03:35.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:25:37.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Geography, Science, Nature, Ethnography

In southern Brazil, on a high plateau in the coldest part of the country, an araucaria forest grows. The araucaria is a coniferous tree whose ancestors were alive in the days of the dinosaurs. The forest does not form a solid mass but is interspersed with grassy glades, onto which the woodland had been advancing for some six thousand years. A new study shows that this process was driven both by climatic factors and by people: the Southern Jê Indians arrived here about two thousand years ago and began to spread the araucaria, whose nuts are edible and nourishing, ever further, so that over several millennia the region became a remarkable coniferous oasis. But over the last 150 years, felling and ploughing have left only a small fraction of this forest.