UBC Botanical Garden Blog

“How marvelous and exciting that we should have discovered this rare survivor from such an ancient past.” – Sir David Attenborough

There are fewer than 100 Wollemi pines in a secret location in Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, Australia. A little more than 10 years ago, these plants were believed to be extinct, until an unfamiliar group of trees was accidentally discovered and compared to a fossil specimen of the Wollemi. The king of the Wollemis, the Bill Tree stands nearly 40 metres tall, towering above the canopy. The grandest Wollemi on the planet, the Bill Tree started life around 1000 years ago, about the time the Vikings made first contact with Native Americans, the Romani people left India and the Chinese invented gunpowder.

Our thanks to Dr. Susan Murch, Assistant Professor and Canadian Research Chair in Natural Products Chemistry, UBC Okanagan, who made possible the donation of Wollemi pines to the UBC Botanical Garden, including a first generation propagation of the magnificent Bill Tree. One of the small Wollemi specimens donated to the Garden was planted at a ceremony on May 24, 2007. This ceremony was attended by Kevin Lamb (Consul & Manager, Austrade, Australian Consulate), Dr. Susan Murch, the Dean of The Faculty of Land and Food Systems, the general public, the Friends of the Garden and garden staff.

This Wollemi Pine will be a great addition to the UBC Botanical Garden collections, and its mandate to assemble, curate and maintain a documented collection of living, temperate plants for the purposes of research, teaching, public display and conservation.

Thank-you to Gideon Singer for submitting these pictures of the ceremony.