#3683 - Wollemia nobilis - Wollemi Pine
A unique gymnosperm only discovered in 1994, in temperate rainforest in steep-sided sandstone canyons 150km NW of Sydney by David Noble, Michael Casteleyn, and Tony Zimmerman, who were exploring the area for new canyons. Noble recognised them as something unusual (for one thing the bark resembles the breakfast cereal Coco Pops) but didn't learn HOW unusual until 6 months later when the National Parks lifted the veil of secrecy about the discovery.
Wollemi Pine is not a pine - it's in the Araucariaceae family, and Agathis and Araucaria are its only living relatives. The family has been declining in variety since the Cretaceous.
There about 60 trees left in the wild, although some may actually be connected by the roots, and they're effectively genetically identical to each other. It's very likely that at some point in the last 10 to 26.000 years, they were down to a single tree.
In November 2005, wild-growing trees were found to be infected with Cinnamon Dieback, a virulent water mould probably introduced by unauthorised visitors to the site, the exact location of which is still secret. The wild grove was also nearly destroyed during the 2019–2020 bushfire season, and were saved by specialist firefighters from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, supported by the Rural Fire Service who installed an irrigation system as well as dropping fire retardant.
Fortunately, the tree can be cloned, and is now cultivated in botanical gardens and increasingly by home gardeners around the world. It is surprisingly much more tolerant of a wide range of climate than the original unusual habitat would suggest.
Christchurch Botanical Gardens, NZ.
