Evergreen gilt-edged artist, initial on cruciverbal melody (9)
I believe the answer is:
araucaria
'evergreen' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'gilt-edged artist initial on cruciverbal melody' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'artist' could be 'ra' (Royal Academician, member of Royal Academy of Arts) and 'ra' is present in the answer.
'melody' could be 'aria' (I've seen this in another clue) and 'aria' is located in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for araucaria that I've seen before include "puzzle for primates?" , "Coniferous tree" , "Monkey puzzle tree (or Chile pine)" , "Monkey puzzle tree - Guardian cryptic crossword setter" , "Evergreen" .)