Wollemi pine Wollemia nobilis
Grows in just one place in the world.
While trekking through Wollemi National Park, Australian forest rangers stumbled upon a group of trees they did not recognise.
The Wollemi pine in a nutshell
- inhabits
- canyons in the Wollemi National Park in Australia
- flowers in
- March to May
- excels at
- a hidden and discerning life
1994
This pine was only discovered by Australian foresters in 1994. While hiking through Wollemi National Park, they unexpectedly came across a group of trees that were unknown at the time. While the pine did not resemble existing species, it did look like fossils of plants. This led the foresters to conclude that the tree must be a new species, found in the wild only in two canyons in Australia.
Living fossil
The pollen of Wollemi pines is barely distinguishable from fossil pollen dating back to the Cretaceous period, around 90 million years ago. However, the oldest fossil among this group of trees dates back as far as 200 million years – before the time of the dinosaurs. The Wollemi pine is the last surviving representative of this group of plants. With around 250 living specimens remaining that share the same genetic material, this tree has barely escaped extinction. This similarity means that all of these trees are descended from a handful of ancestors, and that genetic variation has been lost.
Conservation
Since these trees grow in just one place and are so similar to each other, they are extremely vulnerable to extinction. A single disease or forest fire could spell the end of the species. For this reason, there are now Wollemi pines growing all over the world. If the survival of the natural population should be threatened, then there are trees that can be used to restore it. There are two Wollemi pines in Amsterdam, one of which is at ARTIS.
