Tree of the Week

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Good morning, on a gloomy wet Saturday in the Southland. Who says there is nothing new under the sun? My tree-loving friend Pieter Severynen has found something new and different -- a new tree. Seriously, it’s so new, you won’t find any here in L.A. -- at least, not yet.

The Wollemi Pine – Wollemia nobilis

‘New plants are still being discovered every so often in this wonderful world of ours. On Sept. 10, 1994, David Noble, a field officer with the New South Wales National Parks and Wildlife Service and an avid rock climber, was hiking in a Wollemi National Park wilderness area 90 miles west of Sydney, Australia. Bushwhacking through some narrow canyons, he discovered 23 most unusual looking trees growing on exposed ledges. Subsequent research showed that the trees resembled 90-200-million-year-old fossils in the Araucaria family, once widespread in Australia, New Zealand and Antarctica. The living fossils were named Wollemi Pines, although, like their current relatives, the Kauri Pines, Norfolk Island Pines and Monkey Puzzle trees, they are not pine trees. (One of the reasons we use one and only one botanical name for each plant is to avoid the confusion that comes with common names).

‘An evergreen pyramidal tree up to 110’ tall with a trunk up to 3’ wide covered with bark described as ‘bubbly chocolate’, the tree stands out for the narrow, flat, horizontal leaves on the young branches, and the four rows of angled leaves on older ones. Whorled, horizontal branches without side branches carry a male or female cone at the end. Upright branches form new trunks. The horizontal branches die and fall off after the cone ripens. New branches grow from dormant buds on the trunk. The trees are self-coppicing, meaning that they form multiple trunks without the trunk having been cut down first. Tree ring counting established that the oldest multi trunks so far were about 350 years old, but the roots supporting the main trunks may well be much older. Without competition, young trees grow fast.

‘The tree is listed as critically endangered. All the seeds are genetically similar, meaning that at one point the entire population may have gone down to one tree. Their exact location in the wild is being kept secret, for fear that visitors may unwittingly wipe out the whole population, as e.g. through introduction of root rot fungus spores clinging to their shoes. The Wollemi Pine Tree Recovery Plan aims to conserve the trees by selling seedlings to the public. First available in this country through the 2006 National Geographic Holiday gift catalogue, the tree is now expected to be on sale in nurseries in mid-2008. I don’t know of any Wollemi Pine currently growing in Southern California but I expect to see several in the coming years.’

Thanks, Pieter.
Email Pieter: plseve@earthlink.net
Comments? Thoughts? Email story tips to peter.viles@latimes.com
Photo Credit: www.anbg.gov.au