1. Paraná pine (Araucaria angustifolia)
These umbrella-shaped conifers are not true pines, but nonetheless form an important part of the canopy in the southern Atlantic Forest of Brazil. One of my friends from Curitiba has eaten the nuts of these trees, they're apparently a delicacy.
2. Pehuen (Araucaria araucana)
A tall, prehistoric-looking coniferous tree from the Chilean mountains. Like its relative above, it also has edible nuts.
3. Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans)
A mangrove of the American tropics. Unlike the Red mangrove, it has pneumatophore roots that stick out of the ground from below.
4. Brazil nut (Bertholletia excelsa)
A tall canopy tree from the Amazon. The individual Brazil "nuts" are actually pieces of a larger rounded mass inside a giant hard fruit; these fruits are known to injure or even kill unsuspecting people below!
5. Mountain cedar (Cedrela montana)
Not a coniferous cedar but a member of the mahogany family, this medium-sized tree grows in the northern Andes from 1000 to 3600 meters above sea level.
6. Kapok (Ceiba pentandra)
A large jungle tree native to the Latin American tropics and also western Africa. It bears a spiny trunk (which I have unfortunately forgotten to add the spines, even though these literally grow in my town x_x )
7. Quindío wax palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense)
The national tree of Colombia. This waxy-barked palm is the tallest palm tree species in the world, only growing in the Colombian mountains and reaching up to 60 meters tall (though 40 meters is more common). Keep leaf decay disabled for these trees.
8. Espino (Duranta mutisii)
A flowering shrub native to the montane forests of Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela. It grows between 1800 and 3000 meters above sea level.
9. Açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea)
The palm tree from which açaí is produced. A native of the eastern Amazon, where it grows in swamps and floodplains. Keep leaf decay disabled for these trees.
10. Shortleaf fig (Ficus citrifolia)
A banyan-type strangler fig native to the Caribbean and Central America south to Paraguay.
11. Pink lapacho (Handroathus impetiginosus)
A wide-ranging tree from Mexico to Argentina, this tree is best known for its pink flowers which it produces in austral winter. It is also valued for its lumber and traditional-medicinal properies, as it is made into tea. Paraguay's national tree.
12. Rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis)
Native to the Amazon, the Brazilian rubber tree is traditionally used as a source of latex. However, due to fungal diseases, the tree is cultivated in other parts of the world and not extensively in the Amazon.
13. Chilean myrtle (Luma apiculata)
Also known as arrayán, this small tree has peeling orange bark and vaguely resembles some Australian eucalypts. Native to the Valdivian forests of Chile and central-western Argentina.
14. Magellan's beech (Nothofagus betuloides)
The southernmost tree species in the world, this evergreen southern beech grows in Tierra del Fuego.
15. Roble beech (Nothofagus obliqua)
This "Patagonian oak", as it is called in both English and Spanish, is in fact a southern beech. It is a very tall deciduous tree native to the Valdivian temperate rainforests of Chile and Argentina.
16. Balsa tree (Ochroma pyrimidale)
The fast-growing tree by which the lightweight balsa wood is obtained. Widely grown in the American tropics.
17. Imbuia (Ocotea porosa)
Otherwise known as "Brazilian walnut", this tree has a dark and aromatic lumber. Found growing alongside the Araucaria of the southern Atlantic Forest.
18. Brazilwood (Paubrasilia echinata)
Namesake of the country of Brazil, this acacia relative grows along the Atlantic coast of the country.
19. Colombian oak (Quercus humboldtii)
Unlike N. obliqua, this is a true oak. Native to the forested slopes of the northern Andes, where the cool mountain temperatures create a temperate climate.
20. Red mangrove (Rhizopora mangle)
The archetypal mangrove tree. Grows along the coasts of the tropical Atlantic in shallow water, from Brazil to Florida and across to Africa.
21. Brazilian pepper (Schinus terebinthifolia)
An adaptable shrub native to southern Brazil, Uruguay, and northern Argentina. It grows from low mountains to mangrove swamps, is tolerant of saltwater, and is highly invasive in Florida where it crowds out local plants.
22. Cashapona (Socratea exorrhiza)
Also known as the "walking palm", this stilt-rooted palm of the Amazon is able to slowly move along the forest floor as it grows new roots. Botanists still don't know why it does this.
23. Big-leafed mahogany (Swietenia macrophylla)
The species of mahogany native to the Amazon rainforest and much of tropical South America.
24. Cocoa bean (Theobroma cacao)
The tree by which cocoa is grown, native to the rainforests of the Amazon where it was first domesticated 4000 years ago.
25. Coronilla (Xylosma flexuosa)
A spiny, evergreen, holly-like shrub with a range across Central America into Venezuela.