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Saving the Wolemi Pine

By voltagegate on May 1, 2007.

I caught an episode of National Geographic's Wild Chronicles discussing the Wollemi pine, a rare, ancient contemporary of the dinosaurs that was discovered alive in Australia in the '90's. The stand is the only one known in the entire world, and conservationists are trying to find ways to preserve it.

Australian officials hope to bolster the tree's numbers by encouraging gardeners around the world to each take one home and plant it. Unlike other nonnative species, the Wollemi doesn't grow or reproduce fast enough to be an invasive threat, experts say.

In the U.S., the tree is sold exclusively by the National Geographic Society.

It's a good video; even Attenborough weighs in on the issue (the man is everywhere at once!).

NG is hoping that if the tree becomes widely available to the international market, then the original stand of less than 100 trees will be less prone to poaching.

Tags
conservation
Plants

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I caught an episode of National Geographic's Wild Chronicles discussing the Wollemi pine, a rare, ancient contemporary of the dinosaurs that was discovered alive in Australia in the '90's.

Australia's wollemi pine not so wondrous

...
Biologist Allen Greer, the principal research scientist at the Australia Museum in Sydney, thinks his colleagues may have been carried away with excitement.

He says their breathless claims that the wollemi was around at the time of the dinosaurs were hard to prove and that it would be more accurate to describe the pine as probably a new species belonging to a family previously only known from fossils.

He queries whether it's possible to substantiate the claim that the wollemi is a direct descendant of trees from 130 million years ago.
...

By Mustafa Mond, FCD (not verified) on 01 May 2007 #permalink

Actually the article is wrong, I imported the first commercially available Wollemia nobilis into the USA complete with all necessary permits and documentation. Don't be fooled by the conservation hype the corporate greed has taken over, they even tradmarked the name in the USA to prevent anyone else selling them.

The plants offered for sale by NG are VERY POOR quality with purchasers furious about the size mainly less than 6" when they were advertized at 10-14".

They even sent me a lawsuit claiming a million dollars in damages for me using the name.

DON'T BE FOOLED BY THE CORPORATE HYPE.