Prehistoric pine puts down new roots in Scotland

Published on Saturday 1 January 2005 21:22

A RARE prehistoric tree thought to have been extinct for millions of years is to be the centrepiece of a newly refurbished tourist attraction in Scotland.

The Wollemi pine covered large swathes of the planet more than 65 million years ago, but botanists believed it had been wiped out at around the same time as the dinosaurs and remained only in fossilised form.

But in 1994 about 100 survivors were found clinging to life in remote and almost inaccessible canyons in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Now specimens grown from seed have been air-freighted to the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh as part of a global effort to ensure the species’ long-term survival.

The biggest will be placed inside the Garden’s Victorian glasshouse, which is currently undergoing a 300,000 programme of restoration.

The first batch of the pines, which are closely related to the Monkey Puzzle tree, arrived at Glasgow Airport last week before being placed in quarantine to prevent the importation of disease.

Stephen Blackmore, Regius Keeper of the Botanic Garden, said:

"This is such an amazing tree.

We are very excited about getting it because we have the best collection of conifers in the world and this will add greatly to what we already have."

The tree will be on view to the public when the glasshouse reopens later this year.