The Latin word excelsus came to our language as excellent . This adjective is used to qualify that or that which is remarkable, eminent or distinguished . For example: “The new film by the Argentine filmmaker is an excellent documentary about border towns”, "In the last century we had an excellent president who was key in national development", "The excellent Chilean forward could continue his career in French football".
The qualifying excelso is very positive : Alludes to wonderful or outstanding features . Suppose a literary critic defines a writer as a “Excellent novelist”. With this rating, you will be referring to the author in question has a special talent for the development of novels .
He adjective It can be applied to people as well as objects or situations. Just as a novelist can be described as excellent, it can also be called a novel (or any other type of book).
A “Excellent soccer player” He is the one who usually stands out thanks to his capacity . Anyway, any player can have a “Exalted party”: a meeting where he shone and had a great performance.
When the term is written with initial capital letter , indicates the dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (RAE ), mentions God : "I'm not afraid because I know that Excelso will protect me", “I was very young when I made the decision to dedicate my life to Excelso”, “Excelso guides my way”.
The araucaria excelsa Finally, it is a type of araucaria that is characterized by its rapid growth and reaching a great height. It is worth mentioning that araucarias are trees that belong to the family group of the abietáceas.
Other names by which this conifer is known are Norfolk Island Pine, simply araucaria or, in the scientific field, araucaria heterophylla. The family to which it belongs, whose name in Latin is Araucariaceae, is very old and the island Norfolk, where he is endemic, is in Australia. Since it has great value as a piece of natural ornamentation, it is grown in many parts of the world.
The point that makes Araucaria excelsa so attractive is that its branches have a symmetry shocking; they arise from five per level from the trunk (which develops with great rectitude), usually with an almost right angle to it, although they tend to lean slightly upwards. Seen from a vertical perspective, each of the levels in which its branches are grouped forms a perfect pentagon.
The leaves are shaped like scales and this araucaria is considered a dioecious tree, since female and male flowers are found in different plants, but there are also specimens monoecious, that is to say that they contain flowers of both sexes. The fruit of the araucaria excelsa is a globose cone whose diameter can reach 12 centimeters. It is important to note that only through the reproduction Sexually it is possible to ensure that the symmetry that characterizes it is preserved; on the contrary, the dynamic reproduction (where gametes do not intervene) is less stable.
The araucaria excelsa was discovered in 1774 by the well-known British captain James cook , who before the fascination that caused him the forests of the island of Norfolk did not take in using them for his benefit. The masts of the Royal Navy, for example, began to be manufactured with the logs of these imposing trees that reached 50 meters high.
Currently, it is possible to find specimens of araucaria excelsa that reach 80 meters high, although many people use it as an interior decoration plant when it is still young, since its developing is slow.
