Rare Australian Pine

[Weta]

 

[broken_branch]

Seeds please

 

[JeffS73]

Fascinating, thank you! Need tree version of gene-editing to combat fungi like Phytophthera.

 

[RobGA]

Love the Wollemi pines. Would love to get one but do not want to risk failure as it is so endangered. Hope many in NZ and Australia are getting some to spread their numbers and range. Thanks for posting.

 

[TrevorLarsen]

Is it just me or did anyone else have to double check this didn’t say Austrian pine? It’s literally a joke from dumb and dumber. I’m smart.

 

[birchman]

Mine was growing great for a couple years in a big pot, got to about 1.2m with a lot of stems. Then we had a rainy winter of 2023 and I neglected to check its drainage - it was saturated in the pot and withered after a couple months of decline. I'll look to try again for sure.

 

[RJG2]

Funny, I saw an article about this today, and ordered a few seeds from eBay (we'll see if they are legitimate in a couple years I guess).

I was looking at the temperature ranges for Wollemi National Park, and seems like the coolest night temperatures are 40ish degrees F on average (daytime temps in the mid to high 50s).

Kinda similar to warmer Mediterranean climates, or "semi-tropical" ?

 

[Wires_Guy_wires]

Fascinating, thank you! Need tree version of gene-editing to combat fungi like Phytophthera.

The thing with fungi, unfortunately, is that they gene-edit themselves easier than plants do.
One can gene-edit a plant in about a month, making it so that it produces certain toxins that kills phytophthera.. However, a fungus picking up an antibiotic resistance gene can take as little as 40 seconds. Making all of its offspring or clones resistant as well. That makes it really difficult to stay ahead of the curve in slower growing plants.

 

[TimIAm]

I was looking at the temperature ranges for Wollemi National Park, and seems like the coolest night temperatures are 40ish degrees F on average (daytime temps in the mid to high 50s).

Kinda similar to warmer Mediterranean climates, or "semi-tropical" ?

I think subtropical is correct. Wikipedia calls Sydney subtropical and Wollemi is not far off from the outskirts of Sydney.

In the Sydney climate my trees grow year round. I get maximum 8 weeks where my trees slow down growth and usually see new buds around 6 weeks for any trees that do drop leaves.

My Chinese Elms typically don't drop their leaves and my maples and liquidambar don't drop leaves until about 4 weeks into winter. (Larger street trees drop their leaves much earlier, but my trees in pots don't)

Chinese elms only drop their "old" leaves when they come out of the short dormancy and new buds push through.

 

[Lutonian]

I think subtropical is correct. Wikipedia calls Sydney subtropical and Wollemi is not far off from the outskirts of Sydney.

In the Sydney climate my trees grow year round. I get maximum 8 weeks where my trees slow down growth and usually see new buds around 6 weeks for any trees that do drop leaves.

My Chinese Elms typically don't drop their leaves and my maples and liquidambar don't drop leaves until about 4 weeks into winter. (Larger street trees drop their leaves much earlier, but my trees in pots don't)

Chinese elms only drop their "old" leaves when they come out of the short dormancy and new buds push through.

they grow them at many locations unprotected around the Uk for example kew, RHS wisley.

the link below goes the RHS web page on this tree they say it has a hardiness rating of H4 which is hardy through most of the UK (-10c to -5c)

Wollemia nobilis | Wollemi pine Trees/RHS Gardening

Find help & information on Wollemia nobilis Wollemi pine Trees from the RHS

www.rhs.org.uk

cool tree but after looking at them in the flesh I think they would make poor bonsai, but an excellent garden tree/ garden curiosity

 

[Shibui]

Definitely not great for bonsai. The leaves are long like Araucaria and also long internodes.

Wollemia may be rare in nature but literally millions of clones have been produced and sold over the past 20 years and they are now growing all round the world.
There are many species that are rarer than these but have not received the same publicity.

 

[Leo in N E Illinois]

The growth habits of all members of the Araucaria family make them mediocre to poor to very poor species to use for bonsai. They just do not respond well to bonsai techniques. Though all my hands on experience is from just a couple Araucaria species, I have been reading and collecting information on this family of trees for many decades. I was probably 13 or so when I first tried to "bonsai" an Araucaria, I'm 69 years old now. None of my Araucaria projects survived my care more than 15 years or so. I gave away the houseplant specimens and composted the ones I did the most "bonsai work" on them. They just do not respond well. They do not back bud predictably, nor quickly. The terminal buds on fronds and on the main stem are pretty much it. If the terminal gets damaged or deliberately removed (as in a trunk chop) it may take several years before a replacement terminal bud will develop to continue upward growth, if it happens at all. The replacement bud will be on an upper branch, essentially a back bud on a branch that grows on the upper surface of the branch. Makes for awkward zigzag in the trunk. Trunk segments are always very linear, or rigidly straight. There are almost never any curves except to curve toward the light if you do not rotate your pots in front of a window. Several species get called Norfolk pine, the Araucaria actually coming from Norfolk Island is much more rare in cultivation than most other species including Wollemi pine.

There are 19 species of Araucaria, where 13 species are endemic to New Caledonia, also species found in South America, Australia, New Guinea, and Norfolk Island

17 species of Agathis - New Zealand, Australia (Queensland), Borneo, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Philippines and New Caledonia

1 species of Wollemi - found only in one location in Australia