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Wollemi pine growing

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One of our ancient trees!

Just wondering if any one else is growing?

Any thoughts on medicinal action of the sap or bark? My guess is it would have similar resin structure to other pines so might be good for upper respiratory stuff, but can't find any studies done.

I also found one or 2 very interesting bracket like fungi growing in them but have no idea what they are!

Interested in people's thoughts on the wollemi.

My plants I have had from cuttings a few years ago, in large pots & have set heaps of cones.

Btw have a few seeds & pollen if any one is interested in trying to grow from seed or an environmental crossing.

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Majestic tree this but I am pretty sure the only use for resin was as a glue. Have you had a smell of the resin? Seeds should be edible though.

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I wonder if it would be possible to get an intergeneric cross with an Agathis sp., the Wollemi's closest relative. I know nothing of genetics.

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I seriously have to get one... Let me know if you still have any seed pods available.

I just finished the book 'The Wollemi Pine' by James Woodford. It was a fascinating read... It is an adventure story of how it was discovered along with some amazing biological insights.

What blows my mind about this plant is that of the 250 plants in the wild, sexual reproduction thrives and yet genetic diversity is non-existent. In other words, when two genetically identical parents (as is the case with all woolemi pines) sexually reproduce, the offspring will be genetically identical to the parents. This is almost unheard of. In almost all cases, sexual reproduction between a pair of clones or identical twins will produce offspring that will be genetically different from the identical parents.

This book made me rethink the idea that survival is based on genetic diversity which is the driving force behind natural selection.

This is a quote from the book:

"Maybe we need to think about evolutionary potential in different ways', he said in his office, again having a good tug on his beard. He told me about some preliminary data he had obtained showing that other members of the family Araucariaceae had unusually low variability - through all exept Woolemia had some. The monkey puzzle trees appear to be the shipwrecked sailors of the plant kingdom, finding themselves in circumstances of extreme hardship but miraculously immune to the genetic demands placed on the rest of life. Norfolk Island pines have lived for millions of years on a shard of Gondwana in the Pacific Ocean and have proven to be one of the toughest coastal conifers on earth. Other Araucariacea, like those on Fraser Island off the coast of Queensland, have also survived biological isolation that would have destroyed many species. 'Maybe what is happening here', Peakall reflected, 'is that over a long evolutionary history and despite low genetic diversity these plants have developed an all-purpose genotype'.

Perhaps, he speculated, relics like this are proof that there are other ways of surviving than by gambling on genetic diversity to ensure that certain individuals within a species do not succumb to an unexpected force that cripples other members. 'Woolemia is likely an exception that disproves a rule', Peakall said. 'The assumption has always been that genetic diversity is good because it is the basis of natural selection. The Woolemi pine mite actually prove that in some systems it is possible to have exceptionally low variability and stay reasonably happy'.

Perhaps genetic variability is an asset to some, in particular to life's newcomers and those expanding to new ecological niches. The variability is like a high-risk investment portfolio - it increases the chance of mutations producing an ecological windfall. The downside to that is it also increases the chance of freak wipeout. Perhaps the old-timers - ancient relic tree families, which have experienced just about everything a planet could encounter - are able to take a different approach. To put all their assets into one account but make sure it is a safe investment. This may be why Woolemi pines are thriving and healthy but a mere two score in number.

Whatever crash-tackled the tree - one of the most conservative organisms that life has ever thrown up - must have been bordering on apocalyptic. 'So serious', Pekell told me, 'the best genetic constitution hasn't been able to get out of its canyon. But the flipside is, once it settled down there, its all-purpose genome has allowed it to do as well as it can. I think there's a lot of luck in this story. Good luck in that Woolemi pines have had the constitution to hang in there in that canyon and bad luck in that whatever catastrophe drove them down there has left them stuck'.

For 100,000 millennia the atom-sizes particles in Woolemi pine's DNA have been slowly learning a little more about surviving. Every particle in that little white glob in the bottom of Peakall's test tubes is like a reference library containing all the knowledge and wisdom the tree has drawn on to survive.

Edited by juzzoa
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What blows my mind about this plant is that of the 250 plants in the wild, sexual reproduction thrives and yet genetic diversity is non-existent. In other words, when two genetically identical parents (as is the case with all woolemi pines) sexually reproduce, the offspring will be genetically identical to the parents. This is almost unheard of. In almost all cases, sexual reproduction between a pair of clones or identical twins will produce offspring that will be genetically different from the identical parents.

This book made me rethink the idea that survival is based on genetic diversity which is the driving force behind natural selection.

This kind of fits in with another idea: that some "junk DNA" is stuff that isn't normally used, but gets switched on in certain environmental situations (higher CO2, lower temperature, etc). Most species have a bit of genetic diversity as well, but this mechanism alone could allow a fair amount of adaptability.

Interesting read juzzoa, thanks.

I did start to doubt his scientific credibility when he said this though:

For 100,000 millennia the atom-sizes particles in Woolemi pine's DNA have been slowly learning...

:rolleyes:

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Do you have any cones left? I would like to try and initiate some in tissue culture.

Thanks

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Would be interesting to find out more about which species of fungi the Wollemi plays host to, any beneficial micorrhizal relationships> And how adaptable are these relationships, as the location was very restricted and isolated for quite a long time but now they are spread all over the world in many different environments with potentially lots of different relationships.

On another note I was surprised how quickly they can deteriorate and also bounce back when conditions change drastically. Last year we had about a week over 45 degrees and even though it got extra attention almost the entire plant (>150cm) went brown. But almost as quickly we had some rain and more mild weather and green tips emerged from the entire plant, from top to bottom. It still doesn't look great because I'm leaving the dead foliage to help protect it but I'm hopeful it will continue on.

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