Wollemi Pine               wol-EM-ee-uh NO-bil-is

• Evergreen tree, conifer, to 80-130 ft (25-40 m) tall, often multi-stemmed.  Bark dark brown and knobby.   Leaves linear, flat, 3–8 cm long and 2–5 mm wide, although arrange spirally, they are twisted at the base so as to appear in two or four flattened ranks.  Female (seed) conse are green cones are green, 6–12 cm long and 5–10 cm in diameter, and mature about 18–20 months after pollination.  At maturity they disintegrate to release the seeds>  Male (pollen) cones are slender conic, 5–11 cm long and 1–2 cm wide.
• Reportedly tolerates full sun and or deep shade, in locations of intense sunlight (e.g., Australia) young plants do best in 50% shade or under dapple light.  Requires good drainage and is susceptible to the root rot organism, Phytophthora cinnamomi.  Prefers acid soils but adaptable to other soil types.
• Hardy to USDA Zone 9, or possibly Zone 8.   Native to semi-tropical Australia (see below).
• Wollemia nobilis is the sole species in the genus Wollemia and was discovered in Australia in 1994!! in a remote series of narrow, steep-sided sandstone gorges near Lithgow in a temperate rainforest wilderness area of the Wollemi National Park in New South Wales, roughly about 100 miles north-west of Sydney.   The plant was known only from fossils until its discover in 1994.
  The common name is Wollemi Pine, although it is not a pine, but in the family Araucariacea, which also contains the Monkey Puzzle (Araucaria araucana) and the Norfolk Island "Pine" (Araucaria heterophylla).  Wollemia nobilis became commercially available in 2006.