An almost unbelievable story

One day when David Noble, an officer of the Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains of SE Australia, was hiking through some closed canyons around 150 km (93 miles) from the city of Sydney, he came across some conifers that he didn't recognise. He took some specimens away with him to find that it was a species new to science, most recently found as fossils some 2 million years old!

When did this discovery take place? 1850? 1900? No, in September 1994, within such a short distance of a modern city of approaching 5 million people! The tree was named Wollemia nobilis, after both the park and the discoverer.

The so-called Wollemi pine, which is not a pine or even related to pines, has been placed in the same family as the monkey puzzle tree. Having just been discovered it was soon classified as Critically Endangered and is carefully protected. In spite of that, mature trees have been found to be infected with the pathogen Phytophthora cinnamomi, probably brought in by people walking in to see the trees, though their location is kept as secret as possible.

Before long experiments in propagation were taking place and young trees were being grown from seed and cuttings. It's now one of the most widely planted garden conifers around - I planted one at Arduaine Garden a few years ago.

The small plant in my Blip was grown from a cutting. A young tree growing in a Scottish botanic garden developed a second leader and a friend of mine there rooted it and later gave it to me. So I hope that before too long a Living Fossil will be growing in Oban. Maybe somebody's growing one here already - who knows!