Wollemi pine
Wollemi Pine International
If you visit many of the Botanic Gardens in Australia, you will find an unassuming conifer housed in a strong steel cage. It is only when you read the words on the plaque nearby that you realise the tree's significance, for you are looking at a Wollemi pine.
A dinosaur plant
When it was discovered in 1994, Professor Carrick Chambers, of Sydney's Royal Botanic Gardens, said: “The discovery of the Wollemi pine is the equivalent of finding a small dinosaur on Earth.”
The Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis, Family Araucariaceae) is one of the world's oldest and rarest trees. Its relatives are the kauri, Norfolk Island, hoop, bunya and monkey puzzle pines.
The tree was discovered by David Noble, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Officer and avid bushwalker, in a rainforest gorge within the 500,000 hectare Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, 200 kilometres west of Sydney.
Fossil evidence of this tree dates back 90 million years. As there are also fossil records of dinosaurs in Australia at that time (before they became extinct globally around 65 million years ago) palaeontologists say the pine may well have provided food for dinosaurs.
Wollemi Pine International
The Wollemi pine has attractive, unusual dark green foliage and bubbly bark. It sprouts multiple trunks and is fast growing with sufficient light. It favours acid soils and temperatures from minus 5–45 degrees Celsius.
The largest wild Wollemi pine in the rainforest gorge is 40 m tall and its main trunk is 1.2 m wide. The wild population of mature trees is less than 100.
Since its discovery in 1994, conservationists, horticulturalists and ecologists have developed a range of measures to protect the lone and threatened wild population of Wollemi pines near Sydney's Blue Mountains, as well as preserve its genetic stock.
The Wollemi pine is protected by the New South Wales (NSW) Threatened Species Conservation Act 1995. It is listed as endangered at a national level under the Environmental Protection & Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and is on the directory of Rare or Threatened Australian Plants (RoTAP).
As of December 2000, the Wollemi National Park (where the Wollemi Pines are located) was added to the World Heritage list as part of the Greater Blue Mountains Area.
See the Wollemi Pine in the wild: http://www.abc.net.au/catalyst/stories/s1371627.htm
Wollemi Pine International
A dinosaur plant for Christmas
You can help to conserve this endangered species by buying a Wollemi pine for your garden.
Threats to the trees' survival in the wild include inadvertent wildfires, the introduction of weeds and plant disease. Its greatest threat is humans. It's well known that once any species is labelled as rare and exotic, people want to see them, and some will even pay a great deal to own them.
The exact location of the Wollemi pines in the wild is a secret. A recovery plan is in place to monitor the site and guard against unwanted visits and illegal removal.
In anticipation of demand for the plants, the pine was cultivated and released worldwide in 2006. Royalties from sales fund the conservation of the Wollemi pine and other rare and threatened species.
For more information on the Wollemi Pine project or to buy your own plant, go to: http://www.wollemipine.com/index.php