Wollemia
Wollemia is a genus of coniferous trees in the family Araucariaceae. It was known only through fossil records until 1994, when the Australian species Wollemia nobilis was discovered in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales. It was growing in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided, sandstone gorges 150 km (93 mi) north-west of Sydney. The genus is named after the National Park.[2]
In both botanical and popular literature, the tree has been almost universally referred to as the Wollemi pine (/ˈwɒləmaɪ/),[3] although it is not a true pine (genus Pinus), nor a member of the pine family (Pinaceae), but is related to Agathis and Araucaria in the family Araucariaceae.
The Wollemi pine is classified as critically endangered (CR) on the IUCN's Red List,[1] and is legally protected in Australia.[4] After it was discovered that the trees could be successfully cloned, new trees were potted up in the Botanic Gardens of Sydney and Mount Annan.
A Recovery Plan has been drawn up, outlining strategies for the management of this fragile population. The overall objective is to ensure that the species remains viable in the long term.[4] Australian prime ministers and foreign affairs ministers have presented Wollemi pines to various dignitaries around the world.[5]
Wollemia nobilis is an evergreen tree reaching 25–40 m (82–131 ft) tall. The bark is very distinctive, dark brown, and knobbly, quoted as resembling the breakfast cereal Coco Pops.[6] The tree coppices readily, and most specimens are multiple-trunked or appear as clumps of trunks thought to derive from old coppice growth, with some consisting of up to 100 stems of differing sizes.[4] The branching is unusual in that nearly all the side branches never have further branching. After a few years, each branch either terminates in a cone (either male or female) or ceases growth. After this, or when the cone becomes mature, the branch dies. New branches then arise from dormant buds on the main trunk. Rarely, a side branch will turn erect and develop into a secondary trunk, which then bears a new set of side branches.
The leaves are flat linear, 3–8 cm (1.2–3.1 in) long and 2–5 mm (0.079–0.197 in) broad. They are arranged spirally on the shoot but twisted at the base to appear in two or four flattened ranks. As the leaves mature, they develop from bright lime-green to a more yellowish-green.[7] The seed cones are green, 6–12 cm (2.4–4.7 in) long and 5–10 cm (2.0–3.9 in) in diameter, and mature about 18–20 months after wind pollination. They disintegrate at maturity to release the seeds which are small and brown, thin and papery with a wing around the edge to aid wind-dispersal.[4] The male (pollen) cones are slender conic, 5–11 cm (2.0–4.3 in) long and 1–2 cm (0.39–0.79 in) broad and reddish-brown in colour and are lower on the tree than the seed cones.[4] Seedlings appear to be slow-growing[4] and mature trees are extremely long-lived; some of the older individuals today are estimated to be between 500 and 1,000 years old.[7]
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