Living Fossil - Wollemi Pine

Description:

This is definitely one of the botanical world's greatest discoveries of all time - the Wollemi Pine. This species is a living fossil, and was only known through fossil records until the Australian species Wollemia nobilis was discovered in 1994. The oldest fossil of the Wollemi Pine has been dated to 200 million years ago. Wollemia is a genus of coniferous tree in the family Araucariaceae, and is one of the world's oldest and rarest plants. With less than 100 adult trees known to exist in the wild, the Wollemi Pine is now the focus of extensive research to safeguard its survival. It is classified as Critically Endangered (CR - D) on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List 2002, and is legally protected in Australia. PS: These specimens (pictured) were cultivated from the wild stand of trees in NSW... as are all Wollemi Pines grown and sold world-wide. Regardless, they're awesome.

Habitat:

There's only one place on earth where the Wollemi Pine grows wild - the temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges near Lithgow, 150 kilometres north-west of Sydney. Now cultivated world-wide, these specimens were spotted in the Brisbane Botanical Gardens at Mt. Coot-Tha.

Notes:

I remember when the announcement was made of the Wollemi Pine's disovery. The exact location remains undisclosed to all but a few... and that's the way it should be. The greatest threat to the small population of wild trees is the human species.