The Wollemi pine is being donated by HSU Emeritus Professor of Botany, Dr. Dennis Walker, and expands HSU’s already impressive conifer collection available to its undergraduate and graduate students.
Discovered in 1994 in a secluded canyon of the Blue Mountains, less than 150 miles northwest of Sydney, Australia, the Wollemi pine (Wollemia nobilis) excited the botanical world in the same way the dawn redwood did when it was discovered in a Chinese monastery in 1948.
The third genus in the Araucariaceae (commonly referred to as the monkey puzzle tree) family of conifers, Wollemia is a ‘living fossil’ whose history extends back in time to the Early Cretaceous, 120 million years ago. The small, native Australian population has been augmented with plants grown from seeds and cuttings and sent to botanical gardens around the world.
Now a Wollemi pine, a beautiful specimen acquired and donated by Dr. Walker will join the live collection of conifers of the Humboldt State University campus. The new Wollemi pine will be planted next to trees belonging to the other two genera in the Araucariaceae family.
The HSU collection includes 65 of the 70 extant conifer genera in the world, a range of diversity that few other places in the world can claim. This collection is one of the remarkable assets available to students on the HSU campus, which boasts the largest undergraduate botany program in the nation.
The conifer collection is a testimony to the University’s commitment to its primary mission of education, and an integral part of the landscaping of this campus. For more information, please contact the Department of Biological Sciences at 826-4166.