So it turned out that the Wollemi Pine official US site had been part of the bigger program, and then was discontinued as part of the official site.  The company had limited inventory, and was unable to import more to sell.  Many of the nurseries were having some technical issues with certifications, quarantine, and import/export glitches.  There was also the issue of all sales of Wollemi Pine being generated by the official program so that they could continue to afford to produce more trees.

I didn’t know it at the time, but the Wollemi Pine exports from Australia to the US had been suspended.   There were a number of reasons, a lot of them having to do with bugs and blights creating havoc in several Southern Hemisphere countries.  The hitchhikers were having devastating effects on local crops and forests of various South Pacific and area countries.  The US does not allow devastating hitchhikers. 

Crop insect infestations and various fungal and bacterial blights can be nearly impossible to get rid if once they get a foothold in a new environment.  Without natural predators, they reproduce unchecked and can quickly overtake a forest or field.

Any new exports would have to undergo lengthy quarantine in phyto-certified, clean conditions.  The new issues and subsequent regulations did not just affect Wollemi Pine, but many other pine species, and some non pines that had equal opportunity to be infected.

As far as I can figure out, the US distributor was reported to have gone bankrupt.  Online research gave various scenarios, part of which had to do with law suits when the name had been trademarked, and use of it became an offense.  Arboretums displaying the tree under the trademark came under fire, even though it was legally purchased from the Wollemi Pine Conservation group.

With exports from Australia suspended, the search switched gears and looked toward other sources, first in the US, and then from overseas.

Photo: new growth tip at the end of a young branch.  Note the leaves are still in spiral formation.

The Wollemi Pine America web site was listed on the Australian official site at first, through a link, and then it disappeared off the site.  Someone at the Australian site claimed the American site was not a part of their organization, even though it had the same format and logos and looked the same in every way.  They also claimed it never was, and that was confusing since they looked the same, and I had referenced it directly from the Australian site.

The Australian site used to list a school kit with a small tree and some teaching materials.  This was perfect, since the display being put together is for teaching and sponsored by a non-profit.  I placed an order.  Finally, a tree!

However, it turns out they could not ship the tree, and sent me the rest of the teaching kit without it.

My search for the Wollemi Pine was now becoming a quest. I spent hours on the internet and on the phone, and writing letters.  No one seemed to know where I could find a tree.  I called National Geographic again.  I emailed several nurseries all over the world.  I asked about seeds. No luck anywhere.

The search for a Wollemi Pine in the US, led me to ask a number of arboretums if they had any for sale.  No luck.  I tried a  number of tree nurseries to find out if they were available yet.  They were helpful, but didn’t have any themselves, and often referred me other nurseries where they might be found. Tough search, a lot of “good luck” encouragement, but the results were not as good.   I spent several months on the phone and on the internet.  

Internet searches have their own set of challenges.  The trick is to figure out what the best key words are, and even then, a species might appear on some obscure inventory list deep within the sight, that doesn’t pop up right away.  Wollemi Pine were difficult to find, but since they were so new to the market, I knew it was going to be difficult, just a matter of digging.  Meanwhile, I found a lot of other trees that could be very interesting, and put them on the list of acquisitions...

There were so few leads early on.  Of course, The official Wollemi Pine website listed a nursery in California, so I started to send emails with a few questions.  I sent emails for weeks, then months, and never heard back.  Then I found their order site, and tried to place an order.  For some reason, it wasn’t working.  They showed trees for sale, so I was getting close.

Meanwhile, I could find trees for sale at various places around the world, where the Wollemi were starting to show up in catalogues.  The contacts out of country were very helpful but, unfortunately, there were not able to ship to the US at the time.

The more roadblocks I ran into, the more determined I became to find a Wollemia nobilis of my own.  This effort was quickly turning into a quest.

In 2005 the Wollemi Pine was first offered to the public at auction to several botanical gardens.  Later in 2005, the Wollemi Pines were also offered to the general public. There were only a handful of trees available at first, but the propagation efforts quickly made more individual trees available to the general public, in addition to botanical gardens.

World wide distribution took place, and National Geographic offered the Wollemi Pines for sale in the USA.  National Geographic sold out fairly quickly.  The tree specimens were expensive, and small, and people complained about their size and condition.  This rare tree had only recently been propagated - a task that took ten years to come to fruition, so it should be no surprise that the trees would be small. They are brand new, after all...  It is also a rare tree - the operative word here being "rare". People should have expected it to be expensive.

Yearling Wollemi Pine trees can appear a bit thin and scrawny, by nature, and it is unfortunate that people were unhappy with the results.  First impressions can last a long time. In time, and a little care, the trees grow to become quite beautiful, and are so unusual and different, that it is more than well worth the wait for them to get bigger.  And they grow very fast!

I was out of touch with a family emergency for a while, and missed the announcement that they were up for sale through National Geographic here, and by the time I realized it, National Geographic had sold out.  There had been a lot of complaints, and they were not going to be carrying anymore, at the time of my inquiry.

So the search was on, to find out who else was going to be selling the trees in the US. Tune in for the next installment of my Wollemi Pine adventure.

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I kept track of Wollemi pine news for several months, and read the regular publication of the Wollemi Pine newsletters online, through the Ancient Pine website:  www.ancientpine.org.  Progress was being made to propagate trees from the wild stock.  A huge conservation effort was underway to ensure that if anything were to happen to the wild population, such as fire, blight, drought, etc, that the species might be  represented elsewhere.

The tree is beautiful and pressure for ownership of such a rare thing is greatly relieved by having commercial stock for sale to the public.  The wild population site is a well kept secret, and even more possible to keep it that way if it is easy to acquire a tree by simply going to the local nursery.

Commercially grown trees weren't going to be available for years, but with that conservation plan clearly in place, it was just a matter of time.  It was announced that some specimens might be available to botanical gardens as soon as 2005, 11 years after their discovery.

I searched the internet to find out which botanical gardens acquired a Wollemi for their tree displays, and discovered that the trees were slow to be distributed, with the only tree in the US scheduled to arrive in Washington DC, on the other coast, a continent away.  

Meanwhile, The Wollemi Ancient Pine conservation was busy propagating more Wollemi Pine trees, and the group announced that the trees will eventually be made available to the public as well.  Yippee!

This may be years away....

Rare trees aren't cheap, so my vacation fund for viewing this magnificent tree turned into an acquisition fund, too, in case I could eventually own my very own piece of ancient history, whichever comes first...

New projects are always so much fun!

I set out on a project that seemed to get bigger and bigger, as the plan evolved from the small bonsai and ornamental tree collection and the fossil collection I had acquired over the years, to a major display of unusual plants.    I have a huge interest in botany, and the fossil record of Earth's plant life.

So, when I saw that a new and unusual species tree had been discovered in Australia, one that had not been seen ever before, whose fossil record showed it existing in the Jurassic period - then disappeared for millions of years - well I put in on my "life list" of plants that I just have to see.  Pictures are great, but to see the real thing would be much better.  The watch was on, and I kept track of news to see if this tree could be safely viewed by the general public.

I already have a pretty substantial life list for bird watching - including a California Condor I saw in the wild, just before they were collected to save them from sure extinction.  That was incredibly exciting.  The bird is enormous and looks like something out of the ancient past.   I digress....

If the research information is correct, (one cannot believer everything they see on the internet...)  then the last known fossil record of the Wollemia nobilis, the fossil form known as Agathis Jurassica, is from about 2 million years ago, and consists of pollen.  Before that, there are fossil records of compressed leaves that date back to a couple of hundred million years ago.

I purchased a fine fossil specimen of this amazing tree for my fossil collection.

Then the Australians decided to propagate the tree for botanical gardens so that people could see this tree around the world, while not disturbing the fragile wild population.  The search was on to find out where I can glimpse the lost and found living dinosaur.

Tune in for more, and the next installment of my adventures with the Wollemia nobilis...