Wollemi Pine

"The Wollemi pine is an ancient conifer that’s sometimes called a living fossil, or the ‘dinosaur tree’. Fossil evidence of the species dates back 91 million years. It was thought to have gone extinct around 2 million years ago, until the chance discovery in 1994 of small grove of living trees in a remote rainforest canyon of the Greater Blue Mountains. In this microclimate Wollemi pines can grow up to 40m tall. Mature trees typically have more than one trunk and can produce up to 40 trunks on a single tree. A single trunk may reach up to 450 years old. Some of the larger trees could be hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. The species has distinctive, deep-red, bubbly bark and fern-like foliage. Male and female cones are produced on the same tree, and the seeds have a single wing to help them disperse in wind. With so few adult trees remaining in the wild the species is at risk of extinction. The biggest threats to its existence include catastrophic fire events and, in particular, human disturbance. Unauthorised visits to the site risk compromising the fragile wild population and ecosystem. Trampling seedlings, damaging exposed roots and fragile soils, and introducing invasive weeds and pathogens like deadly Phytophthora cinnamomi or ‘root rot’ all have a devastating impact."