The Wollemi pine evolved 91 million years ago and went extinct according to the fossil record 2 million years ago, but in Australia's Blue Mountains, a stand of 90 specimens were found high in the more remote peaks in 1994.
You didn't know? Well, that's because Australian botanists treated the specimens as a top-secret national treasure for the past 30 years, and have only recently let the proverbial cat out of the bag. Over the intervening years, a team of specialists from the National Parks and Wildlife Service has been gradually planting small clumps of the Wollemi pine in other locations to help ensure it will enjoy another 91 million years on Earth.
“Wollemi Pine seedlings and saplings grow less than one centimeter a year. They won’t mature until they can reach the rainforest canopy and access the sunlight above,” research scientist Berin Mackenzie explained to ABC News.
From the original stand of 90 trees, hundreds now grow across three translocation sites. Their green foliage that grows in a pattern similar to a fern, and the tallest of the newly planted trees is now only 2m. At least another 20m is required to reach the forest canopy.
Visits to the sites are very rare, and avoided in all but the most necessary occasions. Workers have to decontaminate themselves and sanitize their bodies to ensure they don’t bring disease or invasive species that could threaten the trees.
If you wish to visit this remarkably ancient tree species, you can't. Unauthorized entry into the sites is punishable by up to 2 years in prison and a huge fine, as enshrined in the Australian Biodiversity Conservation Act. “One of the biggest dangers that we have is people actually come and visit these. We know people want to but they really can’t,” NSW Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said.
As part of the effort to preserve Wollemi pines, seedlings have been shipped across the world to botanical gardens.