| Pinophyta: Conifers | ||||||||||||||
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| Scientific classification | ||||||||||||||
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The discovery by David Noble, a park ranger of the Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains range only occurred because of his adventurous bush-walking/rock climbing abilities in the virtually inaccessible and remote canyon system. Luckily, he had a good knowledge of the plant types and quickly recognised this as something different and worthy of further investigation.
Returning with a small piece of the tree that he expected someone would be able to identify, it soon proved itself as a new un-classified plant specimen that further study would be needed to establish, especially its relationship to other conifers. All that was at first suspected by the scientists was that it had certain characteristics of the 200-million-year-old Araucariaceae family, but was not quite the same as any living genus.
Looking at fossil remains of this family of conifers and comparing later obtained specimens of the plant proved this to be the case, and it was duly placed into the Araucariaceae somewhere between the still extant genera Agathis and Araucaria, having some characteristics of both, but also some of its own. Fossil remains of Wollemia are widespread in Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica, but W. nobilis is the sole living member of its genus and as such represents only one of the three genera in the family Araucariaceae.
Fewer than a hundred trees are known to be growing wild. A breeding programme is underway with the first commercial release of this plant worldwide scheduled for 2005. It should prove itself to be a valuable tree for ornament, either planted in open ground or for tubs and planters. It is also proving itself to be far more adaptable and cold hardy than its restricted distribution would suggest.