Monkey Puzzle

Guess where we first learned about the Monkey Puzzle tree? Give up. You never will guess that it was at Button Club. That's right. Button Club.

Black buttons worn by Queen Victoria while in mourning for her beloved Prince Albert were made from jet. Jet is said to be the petrified fossil remains of the Monkey Puzzle tree. True jet buttons are rare and expensive.

Other buttons are sometimes referred to as jet when in fact they are black glass, the less costly material used for the many buttons that were needed as the entire country joined Queen Victoria in her sadness by wearing black mourning clothes.

Legend has it that the monkey puzzle was given its common name when a Victorian gardener told visitors admiring his specimen that “it would puzzle a monkey to climb it” -- a reference to the very prickly thick leaves. The French call the tree ‘le désespoir des singes’ or ‘monkey’s despair.’ Some visitors note that the branches look like a monkey’s tail. However, there are no monkeys in its native habitat. - VanDusen Botanical Garden

Well anyway, Monkey Puzzle trees are a fairly ubiquitous in English gardens, but as they are not common, if found at all in the U.S., our group was delighted at each sighting of the rather Seussical tree with a quizzical name and would all have one in our gardens if we could. Instead, while we had the chance, we pointed them out every time they appeared and photographed them like paparazzi chasing a rock star.