From only 40 Wollemi Pine trees to thousands!!

The story of the Wollemi Pine has to be one of the most amazing imaginable. Up until 1994 it was only known to have existed by finding fossils. Then the staggering news was announced to the world that they had discovered about 100 of these trees growing in a very secluded spot of the Wollemi State Park in New South Wales, Australia. ONLY 40 of those found were adult trees. Imagine such a find and it is less than 200 kilometres from the centre of Sydney. See my Wollemi Pine photos here.

Even up to today its exact location is a secret known only to a select few. These few trees have survived millions of years, bush fires, human invasion, droughts, pests and goodness knows what else. It’s almost impossible to believe they could have survived in such a small location for so long.

Their discovery is likened to finding an actual dinosaur roaming the earth today; in fact it is also known as the dinosaur tree. It’s from the araucaria family and is actually a conifer.

I had only seen photos and news footage of the Wollemi Pine but on March 17th 2006 I actually got the opportunity to see one for myself. I have purchased one and will take delivery any day now, you can see my official Wollemi Pine Certificate of Authenticity here.

They appear to be

· Quite tall and majestic. It can grow to about 35 metres when fully grown.

· They say it is also hardy and capable of surviving in a range of temperatures from five to 45 degrees Celsius.

· The trunk grows up to one metre in diameter.

· As soon as you see this tree you instantly recognise that you have not seen one like it before, it is very different and striking in its appearance.

There has been a massive operation involving many different people to take the Wollemi Pine to the stage where it can soon be released in the thousands to the general public. The fervent hope is that by allowing more people to grow this critically engendered plant it will stand a much stronger chance of survival.

The international launch of this most famous tree was held by Sotherby's Auction House in October 2005 where the sale of 292 trees raised over One Million Dollars!

The Wollemi Pine is about to go on the open market here in Australia in April 2006 for the very first time.

I do intend to get one as quickly as they become available. Sign up for my RSS, Blog or Newsletter to keep informed.

See an update on my Wollemi Pine here

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