FEATURE: WOLLEMI PINE
The Wollemi Pine: 30 years since the discovery of a living fossil By James Nicklen
This year marks 30 years since one of the most significant botanical discoveries of modern times – the discovery of the ancient and presumed extinct Wollemi Pine in a remote gorge in the Blue Mountains (‘Wollemi’ is an Aboriginal word meaning “look around you, keep your eyes open and watch out”). While the tree remains critically endangered, with fewer than 100 of them existing in the wild, its long-term survival is now safeguarded thanks to conservation and propagation efforts. Fossil evidence indicates that ancestors of the Wollemi Pine existed up to 200 million years ago during the Jurassic period, with tree itself dating back to the mid-Cretaceous, and possibly even the early Cretaceous period, some 110 million years ago. This fact, coupled with the rarity of the discovery being likened to finding a living dinosaur, has earned it the nickname, the “dinosaur tree”. Now considered a “living fossil”, experts had concluded from fossil evidence that the Wollemi Pine had become extinct approximately 2 million years ago. That was, until its sensational rediscovery. The chance encounter occurred on 10 September 1994 when New South Wales National Parks Ranger David Noble was
Wollemi Pine male cone.
exploring the 500,000-hectare Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, 200km northwest of Sydney. While abseiling down a remote rainforest gorge, he noticed an unusual looking tree and collected a branch, which he later passed onto the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney for identification. Botanists were stunned to find the sample represented a genus of tree that was part of the 200-million-year-old Araucariaceae family which includes Norfolk Island, Bunya, Hoop, and Kauri pines. Further exploration found that there were up to 100 Wollemi Pine trees living in the National Park. While most of the trees found were mature trees that could be over 1000 years old, some were younger regrowth sprouting from the base of older trunks. u
The Wollemi Pine was discovered in a NSW National Park.
GROUNDSWELL FEBRUARY 2024
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