Learn about the endangered Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) and its ability to resist fire
Learn about the endangered Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) and its ability to resist fire
Learn about the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis), a “living fossil” tree of Australia.
© University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
Transcript
DR. ANDI HORVATH: Hello, this is a Wollemi pine, and this magnificent specimen is at the Burnley Campus of the University of Melbourne.
In the wild, they can grow to about 40 meters and so wide, but 20 years ago, we really didn't even know they existed. They're one of the world's rarest plants. We only knew them as fossil records, and we were able to calculate these were around when dinosaurs were around. In fact, they may have even been dinosaur snacks.
So not only are they the rarest plant, they are one of the world's oldest plants. The tree was first found by a chap called David Noble. He was a Wollemi National Parks and Wildlife Officer. He noticed one in a gorge at the Blue Mountains, and he took a sample for identification. And the rest is history, or rather natural history. What a find. It was named Wollemi nobilis.
So these living fossils have become the interest of many scientists and conservationists, and we look at some of the research surrounding the Wollemi pine.
HEIDI ZIMMER: Well, what we know about the Wollemi pine is that they're limited to a few rainforest gullies in the Blue Mountains north of Sydney. The population is incredibly small, less than 100 mature individuals, which is just amazing that it's held on and survived there for so long.
Previous research has shown that it can survive temperatures up to about 47 degrees and down to about minus 7 degrees. What we don't know about the Wollemi pine is that how it responds to fire. Its habitat is rainforest and rainforest is historically thought of being sensitive to fire. And also, all the management documents list fire as being a threat to the Wollemi pine.
But, on the other hand, there are several mature trees in the wild, which have fire scars and they're still alive. So it suggests that they can, in fact, survive fire.
So what I wanted to do was find out how Wollemi pine would respond to fire. We got 30 of each of Wollemi pine and two other rainforest species, which was the lilly pilly and the sassafras.
We surrounded their bases with sand, just like it would be with soil in the wild and then we surrounded them by hay, and we lit that hay on fire. And we measured the temperatures at each of the stems so we knew exactly what each plant was exposed to.
After they were burnt, we brought them back to the nursery, where we watered them and we just had to wait and wait.
At first, I thought I had killed them all because nothing happened, but then we saw a couple of buds forming on the sprouts, and we knew that we were going to get re-sprouting.
The results were that the majority of plants resprouted. This was exciting because it meant that even plants that were exposed to high intensity fires were able to resprout.
The majority of resprouting occurred from low on the stem, where the stems were protected by the soil. So that stopped temperatures from getting really high. Interestingly, on a couple of Wollemi pines, sprouting occurred from higher on the stems, suggesting that those buds could survive low intensity fires.
These results are significant because it's showing sprouting in seedlings, which were thought to be particularly vulnerable to fire, not only morphologically, but also because they're so small and they just sit in the understory and surface fires could easily completely consume them. So, yeah, we're very excited about these results.
HORVATH: University research helps us understand more about this endangered species. You can now buy the Wollemi pine in nurseries, and in some ways, it's become Australia's Christmas tree.
In the wild, they can grow to about 40 meters and so wide, but 20 years ago, we really didn't even know they existed. They're one of the world's rarest plants. We only knew them as fossil records, and we were able to calculate these were around when dinosaurs were around. In fact, they may have even been dinosaur snacks.
So not only are they the rarest plant, they are one of the world's oldest plants. The tree was first found by a chap called David Noble. He was a Wollemi National Parks and Wildlife Officer. He noticed one in a gorge at the Blue Mountains, and he took a sample for identification. And the rest is history, or rather natural history. What a find. It was named Wollemi nobilis.
So these living fossils have become the interest of many scientists and conservationists, and we look at some of the research surrounding the Wollemi pine.
HEIDI ZIMMER: Well, what we know about the Wollemi pine is that they're limited to a few rainforest gullies in the Blue Mountains north of Sydney. The population is incredibly small, less than 100 mature individuals, which is just amazing that it's held on and survived there for so long.
Previous research has shown that it can survive temperatures up to about 47 degrees and down to about minus 7 degrees. What we don't know about the Wollemi pine is that how it responds to fire. Its habitat is rainforest and rainforest is historically thought of being sensitive to fire. And also, all the management documents list fire as being a threat to the Wollemi pine.
But, on the other hand, there are several mature trees in the wild, which have fire scars and they're still alive. So it suggests that they can, in fact, survive fire.
So what I wanted to do was find out how Wollemi pine would respond to fire. We got 30 of each of Wollemi pine and two other rainforest species, which was the lilly pilly and the sassafras.
We surrounded their bases with sand, just like it would be with soil in the wild and then we surrounded them by hay, and we lit that hay on fire. And we measured the temperatures at each of the stems so we knew exactly what each plant was exposed to.
After they were burnt, we brought them back to the nursery, where we watered them and we just had to wait and wait.
At first, I thought I had killed them all because nothing happened, but then we saw a couple of buds forming on the sprouts, and we knew that we were going to get re-sprouting.
The results were that the majority of plants resprouted. This was exciting because it meant that even plants that were exposed to high intensity fires were able to resprout.
The majority of resprouting occurred from low on the stem, where the stems were protected by the soil. So that stopped temperatures from getting really high. Interestingly, on a couple of Wollemi pines, sprouting occurred from higher on the stems, suggesting that those buds could survive low intensity fires.
These results are significant because it's showing sprouting in seedlings, which were thought to be particularly vulnerable to fire, not only morphologically, but also because they're so small and they just sit in the understory and surface fires could easily completely consume them. So, yeah, we're very excited about these results.
HORVATH: University research helps us understand more about this endangered species. You can now buy the Wollemi pine in nurseries, and in some ways, it's become Australia's Christmas tree.