Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Woolemi Pine (Dinosaur Tree), Goes on Display

The most remarkable botanical discovery of last century, was a single tree dating back to the Dinosaurs, thought to be extinct. The Woolemi Pine was found in a canyon in Australia, ten years ago.
It has been cloned, and about to be displayed in the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.
Cuttings will be available to the public next year, seen as the best way of propogating this amazing tree. The tree is known from 91 million year old fossils, and is presumed to have flourished 200 million years ago in the southern continent of Gondwana Land, where it is thought to have formed vast forests.

Maybe this will be a case of economics saving a species rather than destroying one.

Any info if it is just an older version of the pine trees we all know or if it has slower growth cycles?

Something must be causing a competitive disadvantage for it to be displaced. Exposure to predation or disease?

Perhaps I shall have to look into getting a cutting. It would go well with my other living fossil in the backyard, a Gingko tree about 25 yrs old. Perhaps it would have some medicinal uses as well. ;-)