New hopes for the lonesome pine

The star of last month's Chelsea Flower Show, also featuring in many other international events, was one of the world's rarest and most prehistoric trees, now the subject of innovative conservation strategies in its native Australia. Hannah Robertson reports. In a secret location deep within Wollemi National Park, 200 km northwest of Sydney, lives perhaps the most intriguing tree in the world: the Wollemi pine. This prehistoric tree, the only living member of the genus Wollemia, once proudly occupied much of Gondwanaland but is now restricted to a single canyon system. It was discovered in 1994 by park ranger David Noble when, on a bushwalk through rugged terrain, he abseiled into a remote canyon filled with tall trees. He immediately knew these were not like any trees he had seen before, but it would be some months before the full significance of the find would become clear. As it turned out, he had discovered a species dating back to the Cretaceous period and thought to be extinct. They may have been restricted to their current location for as many as 40,000 years. More amazing still, there are fewer than 100 trees left in the wild (as of 2003, 80 distinct trees were recognised). Happily, those that do remain appear to be thriving and reproducing: they are surrounded by seedlings. Wollemia nobilis is a bisexual conifer of the Araucariaceae family, with each tree producing both male and female cones. It also coppices readily although other species of Araucariaceae coppice primarily in response to trauma. Wollemia can have up to 100 small trunks, with up to four large, dominant, trunks, on a single plant. Ring analysis of a fallen trunk indicated it was approximately 350 years old, but the plant it came from could well be thousands of years old: new trunks were already coppicing from it, possibly not for the first time. The trees have dark green foliage, with bright green new growth in spring, and a unique dark brown bark with a 'bubbling' appearance that Noble likened to Coco Pops. They are very attractive trees whose relatively simple structures immediately remind one of other ancient plants such as cycads and mare's tails. The family Araucariaceae dates back to the Jurassic and Triassic and in the northern hemisphere were largely wiped out by the same meteor that brought an end to the dinosaurs. In the southern hemisphere they were spared, most …