The Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) is an ancient species that shares features with the kauri (Agathis australis). It was thought to have been extinct for about 2 million years, until a remnant population of fewer than 100 mature trees was discovered in 1994, in a rainforest gorge in the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney, by bushwalker David Noble. Around 120 million years ago New Zealand and Australia were part of Gondwana, and relatives of the Wollemi pine and the kauri grew there. A closely related species is the conifer Araucarioides, whose fossils have been found in 50–65-million-year-old sediments in New Zealand and Tasmania.
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by Jaime Plaza, Botanic Gardens Trust
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11 May 2012