The story of the Wollemi pine is about (i) a potential "new" softwood species that will soon be commercially available - fossil records indicate that millions of years ago it inhabited large sections of Australia - but is now native only in very small numbers in a NSW national park - and (ii) the expertise of the Queensland Department of Primary Industries in propagating Australian conifers (particularly of the woody plant family Araucaria).

Queensland expertise

In 1999, Queensland's DPI and Brisbane-based Birkdale Nursery were awarded the rights to commercialise Wollemi pine under licence to the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney [2].

The DPI Forestry and Birkdale Nursery partnership was chosen from a shortlist of five organisations after a two year search in Australia and overseas.

DPI has begun propagating cuttings of Wollemi pine using its internationally renowned strategies and propagation techniques refined over many years on Queensland’s hoop pine [2].

The seeds for propagation are not expected to be commercially viable for several decades because there are so few of them and because laboratory-grown trees will probably take up to two decades to produce any seed. The Department of Primary Industries is using vegetative propagation techniques developed at the Queenland Forestry Research Institute in Gympie, and experiments already undertaken with hoop pine indicate that cuttings could be an easy and successful way of increasing Wollemi numbers quickly [3].

It is predicted that by the year 2005, that 150,000 trees will be available for sale, and then, by the year 2007, two million Wollemi Pines will be available each year. The estimated price at this stage is about $30-$40 per plant. They are looking at producing a variety of different products - there's even one variety of Wollemi Pine that's already been developed - it grows along the ground as a kind of creeper which will be great for rockeries [4].

Between 2005 and 2015, 15 million Wollemi pine cuttings will be produced through this joint venture. Sales of the Wollemi pine would generate more than $21 million each year for Queensland at peak production [2].

What is Wollemi Pine? (Wollemia nobilis)

The Wollemi Pine is a ‘living fossil’. Its discovery is particularly significant since it belongs to a new genus of plants previously known only as fossils that date back to the age of dinosaurs, some 150 million years ago. It is one of the world’s rarest species with only 43 adult trees known in three small stands. Two small populations were discovered in the Wollemi National Park, west of Sydney, in 1994. In August, 2000 another stand of the trees was discovered [1].

Wollemi Pine is a conifer whose nearest living relatives are native pines of Australia and New Zealand: the Norfolk Island Pine, Bunya Bunya Pine, Hoop Pine, Monkey Puzzle Pine and Kauri Pine, all members of the family Araucariaceae. Scientists believe it is closest to the Agathis genus (common name: kauri) found in Australia and south pacific islands. However it has very different features from any known living pine - and is more similar to extinct fossil examples. Its closest relatives are probably the extinct pines which were a dominant feature of the landscape of what is now Australia during the Jurassic and Cretaceous Periods - between 200 and 65 million years ago [1].

The leaf colour of Wollemi Pine is bright lime green on younger foliage to apple green on mature foliage. Conifers generally display dark green foliage. Also, leaf structure is complex and unusual. Mature trees grow to a height of about 38 metres [1].

The female cones are bright green, while the male cones are cylindrical and brown (the trees are monoecious or bisexual). The trunks of Wollemi Pine have an unusual brown, knobby cork-like bark which has led it to being dubbed 'the Coco Pops tree' [1].

Where does it grow?

The three small groves of seedlings and mature trees occur about 150 kilometres north-west of Sydney, within the boundaries of the Wollemi National Park. The Park contains the largest wilderness in New South Wales. It is a very rugged mountainous region of gorges, cliffs and undisturbed forest. The Pines are growing on wet ledges in a deep, sheltered rainforest gorge [1].

More Online Information

For IMAGES of the Wollemi Pine, follow this hyperlink to the Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney website http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/HTML/WOLLEMI/Wollemiimages.html [1] (Bark, leaves, cones, etc).

To read an article on the DPI Queensland's new Wollemi Pine Propagation Complex in south-east Queensland, follow this link [2].

Next >> Australian Cypress - hardwood-like properties

Glossary

Monoecious: Having unisexual reproductive organs or flowers, with the organs or flowers of both sexes borne on a single plant - as in corn and pines.

Native: found naturally occurring.

Citations

[1] RBGS (1999, May) Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney ["Wollemi Pine - The Dinosaur Tree!"] [WWW Document] URL http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/HTML/Wollemi.html (visited January, 2001).

[2] Queensland Department of Primary Industries (2000). Advancing Food and Fibre: Wollemi pine no "dinosaur" (DPI Newsletter) [WWW Document] URL http://www2.dpi.qld.gov.au/infrastruct/sitemgnt/navbar/news/newsletters/advancing_food/issue4/wollemi.html (visited January, 2001).

[3] Queensland DPI Forestry and Department of Natural Resources (1995, August). Between the Leaves (The DPI Forestry and Department of Natural Resources Journal) ["Dinosaur trees point to cloning: the way of the future"] [WWW Document] URL http://www.forests.qld.gov.au/educat/btl/dinosaur.htm (visited January, 2001).

[4] Radio Australia, Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2000, October). Innovations: Rare Wollemi Pine Export [WWW Document] URL http://www.abc.net.au/ra/elp/innovatn/inots791_c.htm (visited January, 2001).

Copyright D. L. Christiansen [Last updated February 2001] Images: respective copyright owners noted/cited.

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