The alerce is unique to the coastal temperate rainforests of southern Chile and the mountains of western Argentina.
The alerce's range at one time extended from the coastal mountains south of the city of Valdivia east to the wetter valleys on the Argentine side of the Andes and south to the slopes of the Michinmahido Volcano—a range only about 150 miles long and 50 miles wide.
Alerce thrives in the cool, rainy environment from 39 degrees to 43 degrees south.
The alerce is one of the most compelling examples of parallel or convergent evolution with the coniferforests of the Northern Hemisphere.
Alerce is classified as a cypress (the Cupressaceae) but has many characteristics of the closely related bald cypress family (which includes both the giant sequoia and redwood).
To early colonists the resemblance of the alerce to the sequoia was uncanny.
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