Displays - Wollemi Pine

• Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis
• Growth Chart

Wollemi Pine in Adelaide Botanic Garden

Wollemi Pine, Wollemia nobilis

The living fossil

Wollemia nobilis "Wollemi Pine" was discovered as recently as 1994, the 35m tall trees forming three small stands growing in deep gorges within the Wollemi National Park, New South Wales. Found by David Noble, an Officer for the National Parks and Wildlife Service, it is named after him and the park in which it was found.

This exciting find just 120 km north west of Sydney highlights just how much more there is to discover in the plant world.

Botanists from Australia and overseas have described the Wollemi Pine as a living fossil because it was only previously known from the fossils of leaves, cones and minute pollen grains described as the prehistoric genus Dilwynites.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney has donated two plants to the Botanic Gardens of Adelaide. On the 23 November 2000 the plantings took place and were carried out by the Hon David Wotton at Mt Lofty Botanic Garden and by Allan Holmes CEO DEH and Susie Herzberg, Chairman, Board of the Botanic Gardens and State Herbarium at Adelaide Botanic Garden.

New growth on the Wollemi Pine

The Wollemi Pine is grown in many botanic gardens throughout the world for display and research purposes. The Botanic Gardens of Adelaide, as a part of this scientific network, is recording the progress of both plants.

Shady Depths

The original parent plants were found growing in highly organic loam at the base of a constantly cool moist sandstone gorge. The loam is very acidic with a pH of 3.5. Their location at the bottom of these gorges is probably related to the site providing protection from bushfires which can sweep through this area.

Even though the Wollemi Pine produces numerous fruiting cones, seed set is very low. In nature viable seed germinates very quickly, but under the canopy of adults, lack of light restricts their growth to maturity.

Wollemi Pine in Mt Lofty Botanic Garden

Keep it in the Family

The two most closely related living genera (plant groups) to the Wollemi Pine are Araucaria and Agathis, which belong to the ancient family Araucariaceae. Both of these plant groups differ in the structure of their female cone and the way in which seed is held within.

The female cone of the new genus Wollemia shares the sharp and pointy outside of an Araucaria cone. However, the female cone of the Wollemi Pine has a free winged seed similar to those inside an Agathis cone. These differences put the Wollemi Pine into a third living plant group within the family.

The young Wollemi Pine leaves are a lime green colour, but as the tree grows it produces leaves with a yellow green appearance. As the tree matures it develops a sizeable trunk with a unique and distinctly knobbly bark, which looks like a swarm of bees.

Growth Chart

Growth chart of Wollemi Pine in Adelaide and Mt Lofty Botanic Gardens (51Kb PDF)

Visit Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney for more information.