Like many other kids I was fascinated by dinosaurs when I was growing up.  Thinking about these huge creatures roaming the earth millions of years ago fueled my childhood imagination.  Fossils were cherished keepsakes and I can remember reading the story of the discovery of the coelacanth fish, thought to be extinct and then caught in the Indian Ocean in 1938, numerous times.

It’s no surprise that I loved the movie Jurassic Park.  It had that “Hey, it could happen” quality about it.  Earth is full of surprises isn’t it?  My imagination went into fifth gear again when yet another species thought to be extinct was discovered in Australia thirteen years ago.  This time it wasn’t a fish, but a tree.
The Wollemi Pine belongs to a plant family believed to be 200 million years old.  Fossils of the plant existed, dated at 90 millions years old, but it was presumed to be extinct.

Never presume when talking about nature.  In 1994 a parks services officer was hiking and rappelling in the Wollemi National Park near Sydney, Australia.  In a very deep and narrow gorge in the isolated and rugged park he found a grove of unusual trees growing.  He took a small fallen branch with him and when a team of botanists examined it they realized it was a plant which had been declared extinct.

Since then two other small groves have been discovered in the same area, but their exact location has been kept secret to help preserve the pristine and fragile rain forest environment where the pines grow.
In the meantime a program was undertaken to propagate the trees to help raise money for the conservation of the groves and to ensure the continued survival of the plant.  You can now buy a “Jurassic tree,” the Wollemi pine, in garden centres.

Wollemi pines can grow up to 40 metres high in the wild and will survive outdoor temperatures as low as -12 deg. C.  Its hardiness is similar to that of its relative, the Monkey Puzzle tree, Auracaria araucana, that grows in the Lower Mainland and on southern Vancouver Island.
 
Fortunately the Wollemi Pine is well-suited for growing indoors, just like another relative, the Norfolk Island Pine, Auracaria heterophylla.  It makes an ideal and very attractive plant for a balcony or courtyard in a container, in a sheltered location out of the full sun.  Move it indoors for the winter and place it near a bright window.
The plants are sold with a very detailed booklet giving complete instructions for growing, and there is also a certificate of authenticity so you know that you are growing a “living fossil.”

Unlike the rather large and forlorn-looking coelacanth, this living fossil has attractive pendulous foliage like that of the Norfolk Island pine, with light apple green new growth in spring.  The bark has been described as resembling bubbling chocolate.

You have to wonder what else is still out there, waiting to be revealed, when an “extinct” plant is found within 200 kilometres of Australia’s largest city.