In 1994, David Noble was trekking through Wollemi National Park in the Blue Mountains, about 200km northwest of Sydney, Australia, when he came across a copse of unusual looking trees.  Unable to identify them, he took specimens back with him for further study.  Botanists were shocked to realize that the trees which Noble had found belonged to a lineage which they believed had been extinct for millions of years.  Designated Wollemia nobilis (in honour of the place and person of discovery), this “living fossil” made international headlines and has been dubbed the botanical find of the century.  Since then, two other groves of W. nobilis have been discovered near the original, but the  extremely low number of specimens found in the wild make the Wollemi pine one of the most endangered tree species on the planet.

Continue reading →