One of our customers, Dr Paul Embree, brought in a plant he got for Christmas. Something called Wollemi Pine. When he brought it in he asked if I could ID it.

As I looked it seemed like a redwood, then again it looked like Podocarpus ,then again it didn't look like either. Basically I gave up and he told me.

Wollemi nobilis. This is a recently discovered genes and species that has been known form very old fossils 50+ million yeas old. It was discovered in a national forest in Australia in 1994. Surprisingly  it is just a few miles from Sydney australia. It reminds me of the discovery of the deciduous redwood in china in 1946 in a small valley.

Wollemi pine is actually most closely related to the Monkey puzzle, Bunya Bunya and the house plant Norfolk Island Pine. All three are grown in the Modesto area. The most prominent Monkey Puzzle is at the mortuary on McHenry Ave. Old and large specimens can be seen in Graceda park at the South end near Needham.

And now there is at least one Wollemi Pine

.

Some information can be found at http://www.wollemipine.com/faq.php .A very limited amount of the trees are available in the US at here.

http://www.ancientpine.com/servlet/StoreFront

There are still surprises for botanists and nurserymen.

---